


Lessons to Learn

by duchessofthemoonbase



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, Jane Austen - Freeform, Modern Emma AU, Poe is Emma, Rey is Knightley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25314895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duchessofthemoonbase/pseuds/duchessofthemoonbase
Summary: Poe Dameron had lived nearly thirty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex him...—except for the other sophomore English teacher, Rey Knightley, who he can never seem to impress.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 262
Kudos: 118





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> “Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.” -Jane Austen, Emma.

Poe Dameron, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly thirty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex him.

One of the few things that did vex him, however, was his boss, Phillip Daniels the third, the principal of Jakku High School, who was currently making a beeline toward him in one of his signature gold outfits.

“My _word,_ ” he exclaimed, coming up to Poe and looking even more distressed than usual. “There’s too much energy on the first day of school. I simply _cannot_ take it. It makes one start to feel utterly, utterly doomed.”

“They’re all full of nerves,” Poe assured him, patting him on the back. “In a week things will be back to normal.”

“ _Well_ , I certainly hope so,” Principal Daniels said, dodging a kid running past him with a lacrosse stick. Some of Poe’s former students passed him in the hallway, giving him friendly waves and high-fives as he wished them luck on their first day.

“I don’t understand how you have such a way with them,” Daniels said, practically hiding behind him as more students rushed past them. “Teenagers terrify me.”

Poe laughed, still wondering how someone who was so terrified of the student body ended up in charge of their school in the first place. “The secret to teenagers is remembering that they’re just as human as we are,” he said.

“Are you _sure?_ ”

“Positive.”

“You know,” Principal Daniels said as they turned the corner into the main office. “My nephew, Snap Wexley, who works down the road at Takodana High, _he_ has a way with kids. Just last year he received an award for…”

Poe zoned out as Principal Daniels went on and on about his nephew for what must have been the hundredth time. Just hearing the name ‘Snap Wexley’ was enough to nauseate him.

“That’s great,” Poe said, cutting him off in the middle of a sentence and turning into the teacher’s lounge. “Have an awesome first day, sir.”

He breathed a sigh of relief as he got away from Principal Daniels and his prattling, and smiled when he saw his best friend, Finn Taylor, making himself a cup of coffee at the counter.

“Hey man,” Finn said, giving him a quick hug. “Welcome back.”

“Welcome back yourself,” Poe said with a sly grin. “How was the honeymoon?”

“Oh you know,” Finn said, smiling and rolling his eyes. “Paris is Paris.”

“The Instagram pictures sure looked romantic.”

Finn sighed happily. “Oh, it was. We had the time of our lives. But it’s time for me and Rose to get back to real life, I suppose.”

“Hm…” Poe wondered with a knowing smirk. “And remind me, who do you have to thank for this lovely new wife of yours?”

Finn scoffed and punched him in the arm. “You,” he sighed. “Don’t get too cocky about it.”

Poe grinned. Easier said than done. He was still extremely proud of himself for setting Finn up with one of their coworkers, Rose Tico, the engineering teacher. All it took were a couple of chance encounters in the hallways that Poe had conveniently arranged to happen, and the rest was history.

“It’s not my fault I have such a sense for people,” Poe said.

Finn groaned. “You spent our entire wedding with the most smug look on your face. You could even see it in the pictures.”

Poe threw a hand up in defeat. He couldn’t exactly deny it.

“By the way,” Finn said. “If you’re such a romance expert, why don’t _you_ have a girlfriend?”

Poe sighed, leaning back against the counter. “I feel confident that I’ll be a bachelor for life. Perhaps I’ll have a long string of torrid affairs to keep me occupied. We’ll see.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “You have a good first day, man.”

***

Poe had spent as much time bemoaning the end of summer vacation as anyone else, but secretly he couldn’t have been more pleased to walk back inside his classroom. This was his domain, the one place where he felt like he was making a difference in the world. And it was no standard Jakku High classroom, either, and he had made sure of it—he wanted his students to feel at home here, like they could turn to him for advice. There was the reading corner in the back, with a huge collection of vintage Penguin paperbacks and two chairs he’d picked off the curb, sitting under the watchful eye of his collection of posters—Charlotte Bronte, Toni Morrison, Oscar Wilde, all of their faces looking down at his students with more authority than he himself could ever muster.

A whole new group of faces would be here in just twenty minutes—young minds waiting to come alive to the power of literature—and Poe knew he was just the person to show them the way. He took pride in being the cool teacher, the one who was relaxed about deadlines and brought his guitar to class—his students, as far as he could tell, adored him, and he thrived on their affection. He never failed to make a good impression on the kids on the first day of class; and he smiled to himself as he thought about the possibilities for the year ahead.

“Knock, knock.”

Without knocking, or even so much stalling at the door, walked in Ms. Knightley, the other sophomore English teacher, who was in the classroom next door.

“Ms. Knightley,” Poe said, looking up at her with half a smile. “How was your summer?”

“I keep telling you to call me Rey,” she scoffed, sitting down on one of the student desks across from him. “Considering you’re ‘Mr. Chill Teacher’ I wouldn’t think that would be such a difficult request.”

“Nah,” Poe teased. “You’re always Ms. Knightley to me.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. Ms. Knightley was a few years younger than him, and he’d been working closely with her the last couple of years or so, since she joined the school as the other sophomore English teacher. She was a meticulous woman with a pretty English accent, always dressed prim and proper in a floral dress or a sweater with pearls, although he had also seen the way she was when she coached the girl’s soccer team after school, a force of nature of an entirely different variety.

“So,” he said smugly. “I assume you saw all the pictures online of my success with Finn and Rose this summer.”

Ms. Knightley exhaled deeply, as if she was trying to control her patience. “Success implies endeavor, Poe. Finn and Rose got married because they wanted to, and because they worked hard at building a mature, adult relationship together. You can’t take all the credit just because of all those ridiculous shenanigans you pulled last year.”

Poe sighed. He could never quite _impress_ Ms. Knightley, and he could never figure out why. Every other person at Jakku High, from Principal Daniels down to the smallest freshman, seemed to melt and smile at every word he said. But Rey Knightley was different, always showing up from her classroom next door to tell him exactly what she thought of some mistake he’d made.

It was infuriating.

“So,” Poe said, holding up the tiny orange book on his desk. “ _Hamlet._ First text of the year. Any big plans?”

“Just the usual,” Ms. Knightley said. “And what about you? Are you going to try and turn the greatest play ever written in the English language into some sort of hippie-dippie improv class again?”

“You know it,” Poe laughed. “As I tell you every year, Shakespeare has to be _lived,_ not just read on the page. And the only reason you’re still getting on my case about my teaching methods is that you’re jealous that I have the chili pepper and you don’t.”

She scoffed and blushed. “Excuse me, the _what!?”_

“The chili pepper!” Poe exclaimed. “On ratemyteachers.com? That you get if you’re a hot teacher?”

Ms. Knightley rolled her eyes. “For god’s sake, Poe, at least have the decency to pretend you don’t look at that stupid website like the rest of us.”

“Never,” he said, and they both laughed as Ms. Knightley returned to her own classroom, the first bell set to ring any minute.

Poe stood near the blackboard, watching as the students began to file in. He observed them carefully, wondering which kid would get the best grades, which kid would talk the most, which one would always bug him about raising a grade on an essay. It was a new year, a fresh start, and he was excited to find out what this particular class of kids had in store for him.

The final bell rang, and Poe smiled. This was it—showtime.

“Good morning!” he exclaimed, walking up and down the length of the classroom and picking up a piece of chalk. “I’m Mr. Dameron, and this is second period sophomore English. I assume you’re all in the right place?”

The students nodded, and he picked up the attendance sheet. There were about twenty-five kids in total in his class, but a few stood out to him.

“Padme Amidala?” _The queen bee, clearly, who sat with her back straight in the front row, wearing a dress that was probably more fit for prom than for the first day of school._

“Wedge Antilles?” _A kind, decent looking boy in the front row—the kind of guy Poe would have been friends with in high school._

“Lando Calrissian?” _A kid with a sly look on his face, sitting in the middle of the room in a designer jacket, somehow already flirting with both of the girls on either side of him._

“Armitage Hux?” _A pasty kid with bright orange hair, who already looked like he was angry at him for some inexplicable reason._

“Oliver Kenobi?” _A nice kid, one who gave off the energy of having spent his entire life keeping his little siblings out of trouble—he had an air of good-natured responsibility about him._

“Leia Organa?” _Even he had heard her name before—she was popular, tough but kind, with a biting sense of humor, and he was used to seeing her posters up for class president._

“Kylo Ren?” _A frankly terrifying-looking kid that he already had a bad feeling he’d have to talk to the guidance counselor about at some point._

“Luke Skywalker?” _A nice, perhaps slightly naive looking boy who already looked like he wasn’t going to pay any attention._

“Anakin Skywalker? Are you two related?” _Anakin, a kid who looked like he was seconds away from a dramatic outburst, confirmed that they were cousins, announcing it as if it were a great tragedy._

“Han Solo?” _The resident bad boy, who sat in the back row in a leather jacket, watching Leia Organa from the corner of his eye as he doodled in his notebook._

“Okay,” Poe said. “Looks like everybody’s here. I’ll go over the syllabus for this semester and we’ll jump right in.”

There were thirty minutes left in the class period, and Poe relished every single one of them. He gave an introductory Shakespeare lecture, drawing a timeline and a model of the Globe Theater on the blackboard (although nearly all the teachers had switched to electronic or dry-erase boards, Poe couldn’t let go of the feeling of fresh chalk in his hands). He talked about the power of theater as a medium, about Shakespeare’s path to fame, about the conspiracies concerning the authorship of his plays. The kids listened, riveted, as he walked around the room and shared his passion for the bard. They looked at him with wide eyes, the boys with respect, some of the girls blushing a little.

“Alright!” Poe said, glancing at the clock. “Great class, you guys. Make sure to have Act I read by Wednesday!”

The students filed out, chattering excitedly, and Poe smiled to himself.

 _Well done, Dameron,_ he thought. _You’ve done it again._

***

It was time for lunch, and so Poe headed downstairs to the teacher’s lounge. He threw a TV dinner in the microwave and sat down next to Finn.

“Hey, buddy,” Poe said. “First day going well so far?”

“So far, so good,” he said. “You?”

“Same here,” Poe replied. “By the way, did you want to grab beers and play some pool tonight? We haven’t done that in ages.”

“Sorry man,” Finn said. “I can’t. I promised Rose we’d watch _Antiques Roadshow_ tonight.”

“Really?” Poe asked, trying to hide his disappointment. As much as he loved Rose, since Finn had gotten married there hadn’t been much time for the two of them to hang out by themselves. And to be honest, Poe was getting bored.

“Marriage is about compromise, my friend,” Finn said, patting him on the back, and as if on cue, Rose walked in to join them, kissing Finn on the cheek as she got out two matching lunches for them in floral-printed bags.

“Hey handsome,” she said, and Finn practically giggled.

God, those two could be sickening.

Poe retrieved his TV dinner from the microwave, slowly peeling off the film and picking at the crusty edges of his lasagna, feeling slightly isolated from his two friends as they giggled in each other’s arms. They only looked up when a loud rumble came from down the hallway, and the teachers looked towards the open door to see a mass of cheerleaders and football players shouting and dancing, chanting and setting off noisemakers. There was a pep rally at the end of the week to kick off the new school year, and it looked like the celebrations were starting early.

“Is that really necessary?” Finn said, groaning. “I hated the popular kids when I was in school.”

“That’s why it’s nice to be on the staff,” Poe said. “There is no social hierarchy when it comes to teachers.”

He noticed Finn and Rose steal a small glance at each other, and then they looked at him with amusement.

“What?”

“Dude,” Rose said. “There _absolutely_ is.”

“Oh come on guys. We’re adults. We’re better than that.”

“You know the only person who would believe that?” Finn asked.

“Who?”

Rose giggled. “The most popular teacher in school.”

Poe rolled his eyes. “Come on, knock it out,” he said, but he couldn’t deny that there was probably a shred of truth to what they said—I mean, he certainly wasn’t _unpopular._

“Dude,” Finn said. “All those middle-aged ladies in the math department are _in love_ with you. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

“Mrs. Baker? Ms. Corrigan? Mrs. Fletcher? They’re just really nice, that’s all,” Poe said, and he turned around to wave at the three women huddled at a table behind them, and they giggled back at him like schoolgirls.

“You astonish me,” Rose said flatly, biting into her sandwich. “So when are you gonna share your popularity with the rest of us peasants?”

Poe shrugged. “I have some of Ms. Corrigan’s cookies in my freezer.”

“That is _not_ what I meant,” Rose said, and as she finished speaking, Poe noticed a stranger walk into the room.

He was short, with sandy blond hair and a bit of a beard, wearing a crumpled button-up with cargo shorts. He was currently attempting to operate the coffeemaker, his eyes wide with terror and confusion as he pressed at the buttons.

“Who’s that?” Poe whispered.

“Harry Beaumont,” Finn explained. “11th grade world history. He just started today.”

“I can see that,” Poe said, watching with second-hand embarrassment as he started prying at one of the coffee machine buttons with a fork. “You think I don’t share?” he said, turning pointedly to Rose. “Watch me.”

Poe walked over to Harry and gave him a friendly smile. “Let me help you with that,” he said. “This machine has been a little off for years…you just have to press this button here…aaaand voila! Coffee.”

“Oh, thank you,” Harry said, looking up at him nervously. “It’s my first day teaching here.”

“Well, welcome to Jakku High,” he said, reaching out his hand. “I’m Poe. Poe Dameron. I teach tenth grade English.”

“Harry Beaumont,” he said, shaking back weakly. “Eleventh grade world history.”

“A fascinating subject,” Poe said, putting his arm around him and leading him back to the table. “These are my friends Finn Taylor and Rose Tico—just married and absolutely disgusting about it, so I apologize in advance. Guys, this is Harry Beaumont.”

Harry gave an awkward little wave and Rose beamed at him, clearly finding him adorable. The four of them sat and talked for the rest of their lunch break—well, the three of them talked as they smiled encouragingly at Harry, who sat shyly in the corner—but Poe hoped he’d open up in time.

When Harry left to go teach his next class, Poe noticed Finn and Rose watching him with suspicious looks on their faces.

“What exactly are you doing?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, this has classic Dameron shenanigans written _all_ over it,” Finn declared. “And I’m not sure I’m gonna like it.”

“Calm down,” Poe said. “I’m just going to…give Mr. Beaumont a bit of a makeover. Give him some confidence, you know. It’ll be good for him.”

“It would good for _you_ if you just minded your own goddamn business,” Finn said.

“Hey,” Poe said. “I need a new hobby. Not all of us have _Antiques Roadshow_ scheduled in every evening.”

Rose gasped in mock horror. “Well,” she said. “When you inadvertently give away a lamp that’s worth forty grand, don’t come crying to me.”

Poe laughed, waving goodbye to his friends as he made his way back upstairs to his classroom. Harry Beaumont could use some help, and he was just the guy to turn him around—no matter what Finn, Rose, or Ms. Knightley had to say about it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “One may smile and smile and be a villain.”  
> -William Shakespeare, Hamlet. I.V.115.

“Well did they?” Kes Dameron asked the second Poe walked in the door.

“Did they what?”

“Fix the draft? There was a terrible draft inside the school when I visited last year, and remember I told you to ask Principal Daniels if there were any plans to—”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Dad,” Poe said, giving him a hug as he made his way to the fridge to grab a drink. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“Well, it hasn’t gotten cold yet,” Kes said, shaking his head. “You just wait.”

Poe smiled as he sat down across from him. Most of the time he found himself annoyed with his dad’s constant worrying, but he knew it came from a place of love. Since Poe’s mother, Shara, died when he was young, it made sense that a fear of any kind of illness or disaster had settled into Kes’s mind over the years.

They took care of each other, Poe and his dad. They were all each other had, and even at thirty-one with a hefty savings account, Poe still couldn’t bear to move out. He couldn’t stand the thought of his dad sitting alone in their big house all by himself. Who would remind him to take his medication? Or to record _Wheel of Fortune_? Who would he have to talk to?

“So,” Kes said. “How was the first day? Good bunch of kids? Smart ones?”

“Well, some of them,” Poe joked. “A few of them looked like trouble.”

“Eh,” Kes said. “That’s always the case. If this year is anything like the years before, they’ll be reciting Lord Byron to you on command by December.”

“Let’s hope.”

“And how are Finn and his new wife? I always liked that man.”

“They’re back from their honeymoon,” Poe said. “Although they’re not exactly acting like it.”

Kes just chuckled. “I remember when your mother and I were like that, years ago. We sickened everyone for months after we got married…”

“Only months?” Poe snarked. “My friends used to avoid this house like the plague because they thought you two were like…emanating cooties.”

“Speaking of cooties,” Kes said. “I visited Dr. Kanata today, and she gave me this new tea that’s supposed to do _wonders_ for immunity—absolute wonders! There’s some in the cabinet if you want to try it.”

“I think I’m good, but thanks.”

“Dr. Kanata also said that I should start sleeping with the window open. She said that letting the air in allows for the—”

“Dad,” Poe sighed. “Have you ever considered questioning what Dr. Kanata says and listening to yourself, for once?”

“She’s a very smart woman,” he said, and Poe laughed, shaking his head as he walked upstairs to his room and switched on the light. There was never any changing his dad’s mind.

He stared at his empty bedroom and felt a tinge of sadness. He really wished Finn had been available to hang out tonight—he had too much energy after the first day of school to spend the evening watching tv alone in his room…but he supposed he better get used to it.

***

The first week of school passed in the weird haze of reality that it always did, the days stretching long at first and then shortening until they felt normal. Poe’s students were in a good mood as they walked in on Friday morning. The beginning-of-the-year pep rally was at one o’clock, and all of the class periods had been shortened to accommodate it, leaving the students over-excited and restless. Still, it wasn’t going to stop Poe from squeezing in a lesson.

“Okay,” he said, clapping his hands together. “This week you should have read Act III of _Hamlet_ , which means you were treated to one of the greatest passages in the English language. Turn to page 127 in your books and read along with me.”

Poe couldn’t help but grin, looking around at the students and hoping at least a few of them understood just how miraculous the words in front of them were. He could remember being their age and reading this play for the first time; letting the words sing over and over in his mind until he was overwhelmed with the realization that even across centuries, across continents, all humans struggled with the same essential questions:

_“To be, or not to be: that is the question:_

_Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer_

_The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,_

_Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,_

_And by opposing end them?”_

Poe looked out eagerly across the desks, pleased with his recitation. “What is Shakespeare saying here?”

He pointed to Anakin Skywalker, who was staring moodily out the window. “Anakin? What do you think?”

Anakin looked directly at him and pouted. “I think he’s saying that life is endless suffering.”

“Um,” Poe said, wondering if he should be concerned. “Well, you’re not wrong, I guess. But it’s more than that.”

Padme raised a manicured hand.

“Yes? Ms. Amidala.”

“He’s weighing which is harder to bear. The suffering we endure in life, or the potential horrors that await us after death,” Padme said.

“Exactly,” Poe said, and he saw Han Solo roll his eyes from the back of the room. “ _For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause…_ ”

Poe smiled as he began to pass out a stack of papers. “Now, after reading Shakespeare’s work this week, my hope is that now you’re inspired to create a little poetry of your own.”

The kids stared curiously at the new sheet in front of them, which read **Mr. Dameron’s Second Period Poetry Slam!** across the top of the page.

“For next week,” Poe said. “We’ll be writing and performing poetry of our own. There’s no limits on your creativity here—you can write a traditional Petrarchan sonnet, or a rap, or perform a slam poem. Write about whatever inspires you most.”

As with any creative assignment, half the students groaned and the other half chattered excitedly as they brainstormed ideas. Poe detested how much the school system focused on test performance as opposed to creativity, and took any chance he could to give his classes assignments that let them use their imaginations.

The students began putting their papers into their backpacks, setting off the usual chain reaction that meant the kids were deciding class was over before he did. Poe glanced up at the clock, noting that there were only two minutes before the bell, and let it go.

“Have a good time at the pep rally this afternoon,” Poe said, punching a fist in the air. “Go Jaguars!”

***

At one o’clock Poe walked down to the football field with the rest of Jakku High, the kids talking excitedly as pop music blared from the speakers. He stood in line behind a large crowd of students as they waited to enter the field.

Armitage Hux and Anakin Skywalker were in front of him, both of them looking exactly the opposite of what you would expect from a kid at a fun school event—they both gave off the impression that they were about to undergo torture.

“I’m not looking forward to this assignment,” Hux said to Anakin, his pallor making him look strangely bright in the afternoon sun. “I don’t even know what to write about—and I don’t want to perform it in front of everyone, either.”

Anakin rolled his eyes, and Poe knew they had no idea he was right behind them. “Really? I’m okay with it. Everyone knows Dameron is an easy grader, especially when it comes to ‘expressing yourself’ and whatnot—and it’s a lot better than being stuck with Nightmare Knightley. I heard she gave out a ten page essay this week.”

“Excuse me?” Poe said without thinking, and both boys turned around with horrified expressions. “What did I hear you call Ms. Knightley?”

“Um,” Anakin said. “You must have misheard me, I—”

“I don’t think I did.”

“Nightmare Knightley,” Hux provided, and Anakin glared at him. “Neither of us made it up though. People have been calling her that for years.”

“I don’t care who made it up,” Poe said. “You need to start treating your teachers with a little more respect. Ms. Knightley works incredibly hard for this school.”

“She’s not even our teacher!” Anakin whined.

“That’s not my problem,” Poe said. “Detention, both of you. Monday at lunch. I’ll see you both there.”

“But—” Hux said. “…I thought you didn’t give out detentions.”

Poe shrugged. “First time for everything.”

Hux and Anakin groaned as Poe walked away, climbing up the bleachers and taking a seat at the top. He was on the early side, and hoped Finn and Rose would show up soon so he’d have someone to chat with as the flag team embarrassed themselves for what he was sure was the fiftieth year in a row.

Instead, he spotted Harry Beaumont in the distance. He was chatting with Kaydel Connix, one of the math teachers, and they were both blushing profusely, smiling at each other in an awkward way that reminded Poe of kids at a middle school dance. Connix practically snorted at something Harry said, and Poe couldn’t help but be embarrassed for her. She never presented herself like a staff member, and was always dressed in ratty t-shirts and baggy pants; too shy and awkward to really hold a conversation with anyone, unless it had to do with math. He wasn’t so sure that she was the kind of friend Harry should be making.

“Hey,” Poe shouted, waving Harry over, watching as he quickly said goodbye to Connix and climbed the bleachers to join him.

“Hi,” Harry said. “How long do these things last?”

“Not usually longer than an hour and a half,” Poe said, but the pep rally was the last thing on his mind. “So, I see you’ve met Kaydel Connix?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, his cheeks tinged with red. “She’s great. We exchanged phone numbers, and we’ve been talking about approaches to teaching the history of mathematics—she thinks that perhaps if we started the students from the very beginning, at the concept of numbers, of zero, and had them work their way up to calculus from there, maybe—”

“That’s nice,” Poe said flatly. “I just…”

“What?”

“Are you…interested in her? As being more than a friend?”

“Well, yes, I suppose I am.”

Poe sighed. “Look, I don’t know how to tell you this, Harry, but I think you could do a lot better. You’re out of her league, buddy.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “I…am?”

“Yeah!” Poe said, wrapping his arm around him. “I mean…once we get you some better fitting clothes and expand your social circle here a bit, I think you could date anyone here you wanted to.”

Harry still looked puzzled. “Like who?”

Poe looked down at the bottom of the bleachers, where the chorus teacher, Jessika Pava, stood talking with one of the assistant principals. She had shiny dark hair flowing down to her waist, and wore a sundress and heels that must have been hell to climb the bleachers in. Poe had always found her attractive, and thought that maybe, with a bit of work, she could be a good match for Harry.

“What do you think?” Poe asked, gesturing down to her. “Jessika Pava. She’s hot, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Harry said. “I just don’t think a woman like that would ever—”

“Don’t be silly,” Poe said. “She literally looked over at us just now. She’s curious about you.”

And he wasn’t even making it up. Sure enough, Jessika turned towards where they were sitting, flashing Poe a smile as she pretended to listen to what the assistant principal was saying.

Just as Poe was about to wave her over, Harry’s phone went off.

“It’s Connix,” he said, looking down at the screen. “She’s asking if I want to get drinks with her on Saturday…what should I say?”

Poe sighed. “Tell her no.”

“What?”

“You can do better, Harry,” Poe said, flashing a smile at Jessika. “You don’t have to go out with someone just because they ask.”

“I know,” Harry said. “But we had a really great conversation the other day and I thought—”

“You’re a handsome guy,” Poe said. “You can afford to be picky. Have a little faith in yourself, man.”

“Um, alright,” Harry said. “I guess I’ll tell her I’m busy.”

“There we go,” Poe said, patting him on the shoulder. “And _meanwhile_ , I’ll find out what I can about Jessika.”

“Okay,” Harry replied, looking a bit dejected. “I’m gonna go talk to Principal Daniels about something, but I’ll see you later.”

“See you,” Poe said, and just as Harry left he saw Ms. Knightley climbing up the bleachers in a green lace dress and aviator sunglasses.

“So,” she said, sitting down next to him and crossing her legs. “Are the rumors true?”

“The what?”

“The big gossip is that Mr. Dameron gave out his very first detention today. I just heard some kids talking about it.”

“What?” Poe asked. “No way. That couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes ago.”

“Well apparently, the most lenient teacher in school doling out a punishment for once is considered big news. What did the kid do, anyway? Commit arson? Attempt a murder?”

“Um,” Poe said, and he felt his face grow warm. “It was nothing, just uh, some kid threatened to punch another kid. You know…something like…uh, something like that.”

“I see,” Ms. Knightley said. “And since when do you befriend new teachers? To be frank, Harry Beaumont doesn’t exactly seem…your type.”

“What’s wrong with me making new friends?”

“Nothing, I just…”

Poe narrowed his eyes. “You just _what?”_

“He just seems a little lost, and very impressionable…and I just worry, that’s all.”

“So…you’re saying I’m a _bad influence_ on him? I am a _fantastic_ influence, thank you very much.”

Ms. Knightley sighed and took off her sunglasses. “I’m not saying you’re a bad influence, I’m just saying that maybe, considering how impressionable he is, you should let him figure out who he is and how he fits into this school on his own.”

“Yeah,” Poe said. “But he was kind of doing a crap job of it. I mean, look at him.”

He pointed down to where Harry was excitedly chatting with Principal Daniels, the two of them huddled together and discussing what looked like a broken tuba with the marching band instructor.

“I mean, his best pal right now is _Principal Daniels_. And even you can admit what a bore _he_ is,” Poe said.

“There’s nothing wrong with Principal Daniels.”

“Have you ever heard him talk about his nephew?”

Rey sighed. “Admittedly, he could find a new topic, but _still.”_

“ _Also_ ,” Poe said. “He almost went out for drinks with Kaydel Connix, you know that kind of…weird math teacher? When _Jessika_ was literally just checking him out, and I mean—”

“Wait,” Ms. Knightley said. “Hold up. Jessika Pava, like, hottest teacher in the school Jessika Pava, was checking him out?”

“Yeah!” he said. “She was just looking over here! He might have a shot.”

Ms. Knightley rolled her eyes and Poe prepared himself for another lecture. “There’s nothing wrong with Kaydel,” she said. “She’s a sweetheart, and probably would have been a good match for him. And I really don’t think he’s Jessika’s type.”

“Why not? Keep an open mind!”

“Oh, like _you_ did when it came to Harry going out with Kaydel Connix?”

Poe sighed, biting his lip in frustration. There was only so much of her sanctimonious attitude he could take at once. “You know what you are?”

“What?”

“You’re difficult. You’re really difficult. You’re a difficult woman.”

Rey scoffed. “And you…you are…” she stopped, shaking her head. “Look, Poe, all I’m saying is, make sure no one gets hurt, okay?”

He rolled his eyes and smiled. “Everything will turn out great. You just wait, Ms. Knightley.”

“Very well,” she said, waving to Finn and Rose as they walked up the bleachers. “I just think love is something that you have to let run its own course.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so,” Ms. Knightley said, smiling off into the distance, and a small part of him wondered if she was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those of you who play CAH…you know what’s coming, don’t you? :)
> 
> I know Poe is a bit of a meany here but it’s not my fault I swear please forward your complaints to the desiccated holy remains of Miss Jane Austen, Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England, thank you very much.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” -Oscar Wilde

“Jess!” Poe called out as he walked down the hall to his classroom Monday morning. “What’s up?”

“Hey Poe,” she said, turning around and flipping her long hair behind her. She wore a bright pink sundress and heels, and was balancing a stack of books in her hands. “Not much. You?”

“Well,” Poe said. “You know Harry Beaumont? He’s new? Junior history? Well, the two of us were going to make our semi-annual trip to the used bookstore, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join in.”

Jessika beamed. “Really? When?”

“This evening, if you’re free.”

“I am,” Jessika said, swaying back and forth as she smiled up at him. She lost her balance for a second, teetering on her heels, and put her hand on Poe’s bicep to steady herself. “Whoops,” she said, giggling.

“Sweet,” Poe said. “Text me your address and I’ll pick you up at seven.”

***

Poe stood in the driveway that evening, carefully stuffing as much crap as he could find into the passenger seat of his car.

“Mijo,” Kes said, sounding both concerned and exasperated. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Making it so no one can sit in the front seat of the car.”

A deflated soccer ball plopped out of the seat and onto the ground. “I can see that. Why?”

“No reason.”

“You know what,” Kes said, holding up a hand in defeat and going back inside. “I don’t even want to know anymore.”

Poe jumped into the front seat and took off down the road. He’d stop at Harry’s house first, and then they’d go get Jessika.

Harry was already waiting outside his door when Poe pulled up, looking a little better dressed than usual. He wore dark jeans and a green button-up that for once was surprisingly wrinkle-free.

“Ready to go?” Poe asked, pointing to the backseat, and Harry squinted at the mess next to Poe.

“Um,” Harry said. “Please don’t tell me you stuffed a bunch of trash in the passenger seat just so Jessika and I would have to sit together.”

“There’s always a method to my madness,” Poe said, winking.

Harry rolled his eyes as he pulled his seatbelt on, listening as Poe dispensed all the advice he could think of as they drove the ten minutes to Jessika’s townhouse.

“Take interest in what she says, and be a good listener,” Poe explained. “And just, find little nice gestures to do—open doors, or offer to carry any books she picks out—things like that.”

Harry nodded as they pulled up, and Poe texted Jessika to let her know they were here. Two minutes later she walked out the door, dressed more for a fancy dinner party than a trip to a warehouse full of dusty books. She wore a little black dress and silver heels, her face accented with a pout of bright red lipstick.

“See,” Poe whispered to Harry before she got in. “She’s trying to impress you.”

Jessika opened the passenger door, only to have a cascade of trash fall to her feet.

“Shit,” Poe said. “Sorry, you’re going to need to sit in the back, I have all this—”

“It’s not a problem,” Jessika said. “I got it.” Poe watched in awe as Jessika took armfuls of trash and sports equipment and dumped them in the backseat, some of it barely missing Harry. “Now I can sit.”

“Uhh…” Poe said.

“Oh, hi,” she said, turning around and smiling at Harry. “You’re the new guy, right?”

“Yes,” Harry said, reaching out to shake one of her manicured hands. “Harry Beaumont.”

“Jessika Pava,” she said, and immediately turned back to Poe.

“So,” she said as they drove down the road. “What music are we going to listen to?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Poe said, pointing out the radio dial. “You can put on whatever.”

“I know, I know,” Jessika said. “I mean, what kind of music do _you_ like? All the kids love it when you bring in your guitar, so I’m sure you have some favorites.”

“Eh, it’s nothing that interesting,” Poe said. “Harry’s got good taste in music though.”

“Oh, do you Harry?” Jessika said, not bothering to turn around to face him. “That’s cool.”

“In fact,” Poe said, turning the corner into the shopping center. “Since you’re a chorus teacher and Harry’s a history teacher, you guys have a lot in common.”

Jessika sneered. “We do?”

“Yeah,” Poe said, frantically fishing through his brain as Jessika stared at him. “You know…like those…historical…monk choir things? You guys know what I’m talking about?”

“Madrigals?” Harry asked.

“Yeah!” Poe said, and Jessika stared out the car window with a pained expression as they parked.

By-the-Cover Books had been Poe’s favorite bookstore since he was a kid—without it, he probably would’ve never become an English teacher. Shara used to take him here after school, and if he’d been behaving and getting good grades (and sometimes even when he wasn’t) she’d let him pick out a few books to take home—and if he saved enough quarters from his allowance, he could wander back to the kid’s section and get a few extras. The warehouse was massive, and only half-organized; the kind of mess that only long-time regulars like Poe could sort through. There were nooks and crannies and old antiques hidden in the corners, and it even still smelled the same. Walking through the door and getting lost in the stacks was one of Poe’s favorite things to do when he especially missed his mom—it was like her ghost still lingered here.

“Cool,” Jessika said, walking through the doors with a blank expression. “What are we looking for again?”

“Nothing,” Poe said. “We’re just browsing.”

“Huh,” she replied, shrugging. “Okay.”

Harry was already lost, studying an antique map on the wall. Jessika just stood there, as if waiting for some sort of instruction. Poe supposed he’d have to leave them to their own devices.

“Well,” he announced. “I’ve got to uh—find a biography on George Eliot—I’ll be back…”

Poe darted away before either of them could say anything, weaving his way in and out of the shelves until he was lost. By-the-Cover Books was a genuine maze, and he figured if he got far enough away, Jessika and Harry would have to fend for themselves (and hopefully, together).

Poe smiled to himself as he looked at some antique chemistry books, wondering if they might make a nice birthday present for Finn. Just as he relaxed, he felt Jessika’s arm on his shoulder and jumped.

“Oh,” Poe said, staring at her with surprise. “How did you find me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean, um…never mind.”

“So,” Jessika said, batting her eyelashes. “This…George Eliot…what’s he like?”

“ _She,_ actually,” he answered. “Well, she’s one of the great Victorian novelists—I don’t know if you’ve met Ms. Knightley, but she’s her favorite, actually, and she’s always getting on my case about how I haven’t read _Middlemarch_ and so I thought I’d—”

“How nice,” Jessika interrupted. “Are we ready to check out now?”

Poe grimaced. “We literally just got here.”

“Yeah,” Jessika said. “But you found your book.”

“I found _a_ book,” Poe said. “Used bookstores are not about the destination; they’re about the journey.”

“If you say so,” Jessika said. “I’ll just stick with you while you look.”

“I mean, it’s kind of an independent activity…aren’t there any sections you want to look through?”

“I’ll just stay and help you.”

Poe sighed. This was proving to be more difficult than he thought.

He wound his way back to the front of the bookstore, where Harry was still absorbed in a pile of books on Ancient Rome. Jessika followed behind him, still looking bored.

“How’s it going, Harry?” Poe asked.

“Alright,” Harry said. “I’ve been trying to find this one book for ages and so far it’s been useless. It’s this book that was published in the fifties that had these maps of different Roman conquests that corresponded to the theory that—”

“You know,” Jessika said. “My brother works at the University library. He can track down any book—it’s pretty much his superpower. Why don’t you write down the title and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Really?” Harry said.

“Of course. I’d be happy to.”

Poe beamed. _There we go._

***

Tuesday morning was rainy and quiet, but a nervous excitement still ran through Poe’s second period class. It was poetry slam day, and the kids sat nervously at their desks, reciting their work to themselves or nervously shuffling papers. It was a hellish ordeal for most of the students, of course, but as a teacher there was nothing more enjoyable than getting to sit back and see what the kids had come up with.

“Alright!” Poe said, rolling his sleeves up and taking a seat on a stool at the back of the room, clipboard and pen in hand. “Any volunteers to go first?”

Padme Amidala raised a delicate hand, and Poe nodded her forward as she walked to the front of the room. Her hair was in a complex knot adorned with a gold headband, and she wore a lavender dress that made her look like a fairy from a children’s book. She held a floral-patterned sheet of paper in her hands and began to read, her voice soft and confident:

**_Never underestimate the strength of a rose_ **

**_Standing tall in a garden,_ **

**_A beauty blooming against the test of time._ **

**_She is not for display, for a maidens hair,_ **

**_For she has thorns, sharp edges that sting_ **

**_Vines that climb towers and topple empires_ **

**_And beauty that belies her strength._ **

“Very nice, Padme,” Poe said. “Good use of imagery. Next?”

Surprisingly, Anakin Skywalker raised his hand next. He looked pointedly at Padme and then made his way to the front of the room.

Poe had a bad feeling about this.

Anakin cleared his throat. “Hi. This poem is called…um….“Sand.”

**_Life is a desert, barren and dry, endless_ **

**_Sand._ **

**_A thousand million grains_ **

**_Of rough, coarse rocks in every direction_ **

**_Each one the same_ **

**_Sand._ **

**_I am a traveller, lost in the desert,_ **

**_It gets in uncomfortable places, burning,_ **

**_Suffering that never ends_ **

**_Sand._ **

**_But I see you in my dreams_ **

**_A bright rose, beautiful and strong,_ **

**_Doused by the spring rain,_ **

**_And not like sand at all._ **

**_Not sand._ **

Anakin stood awkwardly in the front of the room, rocking from side to side, as if waiting for a stronger reaction.

As Poe tried to hide his wincing expression, he noticed Padme smiling up at Anakin from her desk. _Huh_. He never would have thought she’d go for a guy like Anakin—she was incredibly popular, and he was—well, a weirdo and sort of whiny and dramatic, if he was being honest. He would have pictured her going for a guy more like Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he supposed there was no accounting for taste.

There were no more volunteers after those two, so Poe began drawing names from a hat. “Alright. Kylo Ren?”

Kylo begrudgingly stood up from his chair in the back of the room and stood at the front of the class. He wore all-black clothes and his hair had a greasy tinge to it, as if it hadn’t been washed for weeks. He looked out at his classmates and then looked back down at the paper in his hands.

“Hi. I’m Kylo Ren. This is a slam poem I wrote. I hope you enjoy it. _Please_ enjoy it.” His tone already sounded uncomfortably aggressive.

**_Last week_ **

**_My mom took away my xbox live subscription_ **

**_And so I screamed, knocking over everything._ **

Poe covered his face with his hands and tried not to react in front of the students. _Please let this be a metaphor, please let this be a metaphor._

**_My whole life has been endless suffering, endless TORTURE,_ **

**_A thousand KNIVES cutting into my SOUL_ **

**_Going to a stupid school with stupid people,_ **

**_With parents who won’t even buy me a car_ **

**_Even though I asked really nicely_ **

**_And I only hit that ONE person that ONE time._ **

He paused, and Poe looked up cautiously, still taken aback from his yelling. _Is it over? Please tell me it’s over._

**_If the world would only embrace death—_ **

Poe hid his face again. _Jesus fucking christ…_

**_Destruction, the fires of my rage,_ **

**_THEN! Then, maybe I would be happy,_ **

**_After everything is destroyed,_ **

**_And among the ruins,_ **

**_Will be ME,_ **

**_The supreme leader_ **

**_OF YOU ALL._ **

Kylo stood waiting for a reaction, and his classmates only stared at him with blank, horrified expressions (with the exception of Anakin, who sort of looked like he was digging it) and Poe made yet another note reminding himself to email the guidance counselor.

“Well,” Poe said, and the class waited for his response. “That was…very…expressive, Kylo.”

Kylo sat back down and promptly zoned out again as Luke Skywalker stood up to recite a poem about his golden retriever. It was mediocre and trite but much welcome after whatever the hell Kylo had just done. Poe sighed, scribbling notes on his clipboard. These kids never failed to surprise him.

***

Poe walked into the teacher’s lounge at lunch to see Harry smiling to himself over his cup of coffee.

“Hey,” Poe said. “Any news about that book?”

“Yep,” Harry said, triumphantly holding up his phone. “Jessika texted me back saying her uncle tracked down a copy for me.”

“Yes!” Poe said, giving him a high-five. “See, she never would have gone out of her way like that if she didn’t like you—I’m telling you dude.”

“I know,” Harry said, looking down and blushing a little. “And after yesterday…well, I think I might really like her too.”

Poe beamed. “That’s awesome, buddy.”

The door opened and a group of teachers walked in, including Jessika and Ms. Knightley, who both walked over to their table.

“Heyyy Poe,” Jessika said, and wrapped him in an unexpected hug. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” he answered, and he watched as Ms. Knightley gave them both a skeptical look as they embraced. “It was nice of you to help Harry get that book.”

“Of course,” she said, grinning up at him. She turned to Ms. Knightley and gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Poe was telling me _all about_ that author you like. George something or other, but she’s a woman? He was getting her biography yesterday and said how much you liked her.”

“Oh really?” Ms. Knightley said, glaring Poe down. “You went…book shopping together?”

“Yup,” Jessika said smugly, placing a hand over Poe’s arm.

“Harry was there too,” he added, coughing awkwardly and moving away.

“Ah,” Ms. Knightley said. She had that look Poe had learned to fear; her sharp hazel eyes taking in everything, like she was preparing to call him out for something. “Poe, can I talk to you outside for a moment? About the…grammar quiz we’re giving this week?”

Poe sighed, following her out into the hall, and he already knew grammar was the last thing on her mind.

“You’re unbelievable,” she said the second they were out of earshot.

“What?”

“How stupid are you?”

“Well, as you so charmingly like to remind me, probably pretty stupid.”

“Jessika’s into you, and you’re encouraging her. You need to cut it out.”

Poe scoffed. “She’s not _into me,_ okay? She’s into Harry. She went to a lot of trouble tracking down that book for him.”

“Yeah,” Ms. Knightley said. “But only so _you_ would like her more. Did you pay any attention to what was going on in there just now? She was all over you, and hardly even glanced at Harry. You’re just going to make him upset.”

“I don’t know,” Poe said. “She’s always around Harry.”

“No, _you’re_ always around Harry, and _Jessika_ is always around you.”

Poe scratched his head.

“Yeah, exactly. Ever heard of confirmation bias?”

“Look,” Poe said. “I’m going to keep trying until this theory of yours is proved wrong, okay? I still think they’d make a great couple.”

Ms. Knightley fumed. “Harry and _Connix_ would have been a great couple. In fact, they’d be happily together right now if you hadn’t interfered.” She shook her head, inching closer to him until they were face to face. “You know, I was about to apologize for being so harsh towards you at the pep rally the other day but you make it so damned _impossible_ to—”

They were suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Principal Daniels, who was scurrying excitedly towards them in a gold shirt, a new red cast plastered over his arm.

“Oh, _hello, hello,_ Ms. Knightley, Mr. Dameron,” he said. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t recognize me with the cast.”

“No,” Poe deadpanned. “We do.”

“ _Such jokes,_ Mr. Dameron. Such jokes. Goodness. Anyways, I wanted you two to be the _first_ to know the _excellent_ news!”

Poe tried to resist rolling his eyes. He’d almost rather go back to Ms. Knightley scolding him. The last thing he wanted right now was to have to listen to Principal Daniels prattle on about his herb garden or a comic he saw in the paper this morning or _god forbid,_ that stupid nephew of his.

“ _Well,_ ” he explained. “I’m sure you heard we had _two_ empty teaching spots that we needed to fill right away, and I’m happy to announce that we’ve finally found two teachers! And they’re coming _tomorrow_!”

“How lovely,” Ms. Knightley said. “That must be a relief.”

“Oh it’s more than a relief to me, you know. You’ll never believe who one of the teachers is!”

“Who?”

“Why, none other than my very own nephew, Snap Wexley! He’s going to be our new instrumental music teacher! Isn’t that wonderful? Have I ever told you about my nephew? Snap Wexley?”

Ms. Knightley glared over at Poe, as if trying to stop the snarky comment before it left his mouth.

“You’ve mentioned him a few times, perhaps,” Poe said.

“ _Oh,_ I simply cannot _wait_ until you two meet him. He really is the nicest young man. So good with the students. I cannot _tell_ you how—”

“Who’s the other teacher?” Ms. Knightley asked.

“Ah!” Principal Daniels said. “A friend of Rose Tico’s that she recommended to me. A woman by the name of Karé Kun.” Poe’s eyes widened at the name. “She’ll be teaching in the English department with the two of you, but she’ll be teaching the freshmen, of course. I’m sure you’ll all get along just _splendidly_.”

Principal Daniels was interrupted by a student, leaving Ms. Knightley to stare up at Poe with a smirk.

“What?”

“You smiled when you heard that woman’s name,” she observed, raising an eyebrow. “Do you know her?”

“Yes…no…well, sort of,” Poe explained. “She’s Rose’s best friend, so she talks about her a lot—I think she wanted to set us up at some point, or something, I mean—”

“Ah,” Ms. Knightley said. “I see.”

“Nah, no, it’s not like that,” Poe said. “Like I’ve said, I have no interest in dating anyone. I’m just—interested in finally meeting her, that’s all.”

“Uh huh,” she said. “Well let’s hope Jessika doesn’t mind.”

Poe rolled his eyes, waving goodbye to Ms. Knightley as she strode down the hallway back to her classroom.

 _Karé Kun_ was starting here tomorrow.

Karé Kun who always sounded like the epitome of the coolest girl who ever existed, Karé Kun who Rose always said looked super hot without trying, Karé Kun who Poe had always felt like he was dancing in circles around, waiting for their paths to eventually cross…

This would be fun.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!  
> It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock  
> The meat it feeds on.”
> 
> -William Shakespeare. Othello. III. III. 170-74.

Poe checked his hair in a passing window as he walked into work, tucking a stray curl into place.There were still twenty minutes before the first bell, and if he was lucky, he’d get a peek at the two new teachers before class started.

He walked into the teachers lounge and sure enough, he saw Finn and Rose chatting animatedly with a woman he’d never seen before. She was pretty, with light brown skin and short blonde hair, with a confident, bright energy around her that Poe instantly found appealing.

It could only be Karé.

“Poe!” Rose called out. “Come here!”

“Hey,” Poe said, reaching out for Karé’s hand. “So you must be the famous Karé Kun that Rose is always speaking so highly of.”

“Guilty,” she said with a smirk, shaking his hand. “And you must be Poe Dameron.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said. “Welcome to Jakku High.”

“Yay!” Rose said, beaming and pulling Karé in for a hug. “I’m so excited we’re all here together!”

“Me too, Rosie,” she laughed, and smiled up at Poe. “I think I’m going to like it here.”

So what if Poe wasn’t interested in dating anyone seriously—he and Karé already seemed to click, and there was no better feeling in the world.

“In other news,” Finn said. “We’re having a party at our house tonight for the whole staff. We thought it would be nice to give Karé and Snap a warm welcome.”

“That’s a lie,” Rose whispered to Poe. “He’s been learning how to make charcuterie platters online and he just wants to show off.”

“It’s a more complex art than you think! I told you last time that you can’t put a soft cheese next to a—”

As Rose and Finn bantered back and forth, Poe glanced over at Karé, catching her smiling up at him—she knew his two best friends just as well as he did, and well, that made them best friends by association, right?

A few minutes later the door to the teacher’s lounge opened, and Principal Daniels came in; looking more thrilled than ever. With him was a younger man with a light brown beard and a warm smile, dressed in flannel and carrying a guitar case. Poe resisted rolling his eyes when he saw it—I mean, he played guitar too, but he didn’t feel the need to carry his around everywhere just to show off.

“Good morning everyone!” Principal Daniels said. “It’s a very exciting day here at Jakku High—we have two new teachers to welcome! Karé Kun,” he said, pointing her out, and she waved. “Who will be teaching freshman English, and of course,” he said, beaming, “My very own nephew, Snap Wexley, who will be our new instrumental music teacher!”

Snap waved as well, and everyone clapped, the teachers lining up to both Snap and Karé to make their introductions. Since Snap was already a bit of a celebrity around here thanks to his doting uncle, he already had a crowd of people surrounding him.

Poe sighed. He didn’t know who this guy thought he was, strutting in here with his guitar and smiling at everyone he met. Being a part of Jakku High took _time,_ you couldn’t just walk in and—

Poe’s phone beeped, and he opened it to see a text from Harry letting him know he’d come down with something and wouldn’t be in today. He sighed. His plans for Harry’s love life were on hold for the moment, he supposed. The bell began to ring, and he figured he’d get a better chance to get to know the new teachers tonight at Finn and Rose’s party. He walked upstairs to his classroom, wondering just how these two players would change things at Jakku High.

“Poe!”

He turned around and smiled. “Hey Jess.”

Jessika smiled up at him, looking more awake and collected than anyone should at seven in the morning. “I was wondering,” she said. “Are you going to the thing at Finn and Roses’s tonight?”

“Yeah,” Poe said, and frowned. “Harry’s sick though.”

“Well that sucks,” she said flatly. “Anyways, I’ll see you there!”

“I mean,” Poe said, stopping her before she turned around. “Shouldn’t we be worried about Harry? Maybe we could stop by and bring him some chicken soup or something?”

Jess shrugged. “You’re so nice, Poe, but really, he can take care of himself. You don’t want to risk getting sick.” She flashed him another grin and waved at him from down the hall. “See you tonight!”

Poe sighed, Ms. Knightley’s words from the other day echoing through his head.

Whatever, he thought, pushing his doubts to the back of his mind. What did Ms. Knightley know about love, anyway?

***

“I’m _so_ glad you noticed,” Finn was telling a group of history teachers over the soft rock playing from the speakers. “The trick is getting a wide variety of fruits to complement the meats and cheeses. For example, I got grapes to go with the camembert, and then—”

“Hey,” Ms. Knightley whispered, grabbing Poe’s arm and leading him away from what was surely going to be a long, cheese-related discussion. “Let’s go sit down.”

“You saved my life,” Poe joked, and they sat down on a leather sofa in the center of the room. The party had been going on for an hour now, and groups of teachers milled about in Finn and Rose’s kitchen and living room, sipping on bottles of beer or eating crackers off of paper plates. It was a bit like the teacher’s lounge at school, except everybody was a bit more relaxed.

“Happy to be of service,” Ms. Knightley said, giving him a salute. “How did your poetry slam go the other day?”

“It was…interesting.”

“Interesting?” she chuckled. “Oh dear.”

“I have a weird bunch this year. Possibly the weirdest ever.”

“Anyone I would have heard of?”

Poe sighed. He knew perfect teachers weren’t supposed to gossip about their students, but it was hard to resist most of the time. “Kylo Ren?”

Ms. Knightley nearly choked on her wine. “Oh _god,_ you have Kylo?”

“Kylo is a thing?”

“I’ve heard about him. Many deeply, deeply disturbing things about him.”

“Share?”

“Well,” Ms. Knightley sighed. “His biology teacher told me that the other day he asked if there were any frogs left over that he could have…and when Ms. Mothma asked him what for, he wouldn’t answer.”

“Jesus Christ,” Poe said, taking a sip of beer. “That checks out based on the poem he wrote.”

She gasped. “Do tell.”

“I’ll show it to you at school on Monday,” he said. “It has to be seen to believed.”

“You’ve given me high expectations, Mr. Dameron,” she teased, leaning back on the sofa and smiling at him. He liked Ms. Knightley—Rey—when she was like this, relaxed and silly with her hair down. It made him wonder what she like when she was at home by herself; whether she danced or sang boy band songs into a hairbrush.

Poe was just about to elaborate on his experiences with the infamous Kylo Ren when one of the guests of honor walked over, looking pretty as ever in an orange blouse and dark jeans. Karé sat across from him and Ms. Knightley on the other sofa, a glass of white wine in hand.

“Hey guys,” she said. “Finn and Rose sure know how to throw a great party, huh?”

“They certainly do,” Poe said. “How are you settling in?”

“Fabulously,” Karé said. “Everyone here is so nice.”

There was a tense silence, and he saw Karé and Ms. Knightley give each other strained smiles.

“I really like your hair,” Ms. Knightley said.

“Oh thank you,” Karé exclaimed, reaching up to touch it. “I take a train into New York to get it cut each month.”

“Oh,” Ms. Knightley said, looking slightly shocked. “That’s um…quite the investment.”

“It is.”

The awkward moment between the two was cut away by the sound of gasps coming from the other side of the room. Finn had brought down an old guitar from the attic and was showing it off.

“It was my uncle’s,” Finn was saying. “I know its a really nice guitar, but I don’t know how to play it or anything.”

“Have Poe play it!” He heard Rose say from across the room. “Poe? Please?”

The room erupted into applause as Poe stood up to take the guitar. “Alright, alright,” he said, hiding the smile on his face. He’d just finished learning a new song that had taken him months to master, and this was the perfect opportunity to show off what he’d accomplished.

“Here we go,” he said, and began strumming. A few people began to sway back and forth as he played, while others broke off and headed back to the snack table. A few people, namely Ms. Knightley and Karé, kept their eyes on him the entire time. He tried not to be offended when people’s attention diverted away from him as a new group of guests walked in, people chattering loudly even as he nailed a particularly difficult chord change.

“Snap’s here!” someone shouted, and Poe didn’t even bother to finish the last few bars of the song as the room erupted into cheers.

Snap was drawing people to him like a magnet already, hugging them and giving them high-fives. _Ms. Knightley_ even gave him a hug after he introduced himself to her, and when she sat back down next to Poe, he was incredulous.

“I’m sorry,” Poe said. “But I thought you weren’t a hugging person. You’ve never hugged me…I’ve never seen you hug _anyone_.”

She shrugged. “He’s just a very huggable person.”

“I’m huggable!” Poe proclaimed. “I’m huggable!”

Karé rolled her eyes and took another sip of wine. “So what do you two think of the principal’s golden boy?”

Poe smiled when he saw the irritated expression on her face. “I take it you’re not impressed.”

Karé sighed. “Snap and I used to teach together at Weymouth High.”

“You two already know each other?” Ms. Knightley asked.

“Yep,” she said. “And trust me, watching everyone fawn over him and how nice he is? It gets old fast.”

“I knew he couldn’t be as great as Principal Daniels is always saying he is,” Poe said.

“Well I think he’s nice,” Ms. Knightley said, and then they noticed the room falling silent.

Someone had passed Finn’s guitar over to Snap, and he was modestly trying to refuse until the room began chanting his name.

“Okay, okay,” Snap said, shrugging as he strummed once over the strings. “I guess I’ll just play a little something.”

Of course, that “little something” happened to be one of the most complex pieces of classical guitar music Poe had ever seen played outside of YouTube. The entire room fell into silence, hypnotized as they watched Snap’s fingers move across the guitar. Karé got up to leave the room.

Then Poe noticed that Ms. Knightley was staring right at him, looking far more amused than she had any right to be.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s just fun to see you act jealous.”

“What!?” Poe said. “Me?”

Ms. Knightley turned toward Snap and giggled. “Someone else is pulling your whole ‘sexy teacher with a guitar’ thing and you absolutely can’t stand it, can you?”

“Hold up,” Poe said, smirking. “Did you just call me sexy?”

“No,” she clarified. “I think you _think_ that you’re sexy. There’s a difference.”

Poe winked. “If you say so,” he said, and Ms. Knightley elbowed him so hard his beer nearly spilled.

Snap finally finished playing after what felt like ten minutes, and the room burst into applause, begging for an encore.

It was sickening.

“At least Karé is nice,” Poe said, and Ms. Knightley grimaced. “What?” he asked. “You don’t like her?”

“I don’t understand why she’s so weird about Snap,” she said. “And also, going all the way to New York to get your hair cut? Did you ever hear something so pretentious?”

“There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself,” Poe said, and she rolled her eyes.

“Well,” she said, “I guess you have your new favorite teacher and I have mine.” They toasted their drinks and raised their eyebrows at each other, another one of their silent competitions kicking off.

A few moments later Poe noticed Jessika walking in the door in a red minidress, a bottle of rosé in hand as she waved hi to some of the other teachers. He was hoping that she’d be looking a little more despondent considering that Harry was ill, but he supposed she was trying her best to have fun anyway. Her eyes locked onto Poe immediately, and he smiled at her.

“You should probably go say hi to your girlfriend,” Ms. Knightley quipped.

“She is not—” Poe rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

He stood up and walked over to where Jessika was, and her eyes lit up as she saw him approach.

“You’re here,” he said, unsure of what else to say.

“I am,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eye.

“It’s too bad Harry couldn’t make it.”

“Pity,” she said, and placed a hand on his arm. “Actually, Poe, there was…something I wanted to show you upstairs.”

“Oh? Really?” he asked, following Jessika up the staircase, and he could see Ms. Knightley watching from the couch below. He wondered if maybe she had found the book for Harry and wanted to show him first.

Jessika led him into the guest bedroom and locked the door behind them, smirking.

“So,” she said, walking up to him and placing a hand on his cheek. “Looks like we’re finally alone…”

“Um,” Poe said, and he flushed as Jessika pressed herself against him.

“I’ve seen the way you look at me,” she whispered. “And now we can finally—”

“Woah, woah,” Poe said, stepping away from her. “What…what are you doing?”

She laughed. “I’m seducing you, you moron.”

“No,” Poe said. “No, no, why the hell would you do that?”

Jessika looked genuinely confused. “You’ve been flirting with me for months.”

“No, I haven’t,” Poe said. “You don’t like me. You like Harry.”

“Harry _Beaumont?”_ she asked. “From the bookstore trip? Ew, no, where on earth did you get the idea that I would—”

“Hey! Harry is great, and you would be lucky to date a guy like him.”

“What the _fuck,_ Poe!?” she exclaimed. “I thought we had something going on, and then you flip out on me because I don’t like your weird friend?”

“Um.”

“You know what,” Jessika said. “I’ve had enough of you. I’m done.” She unlocked the door and stormed out, going down the stairs and right out the front door to her car.

Poe was left sitting on the bed, still processing. He should have been more upset for Harry’s sake, but for some reason the only thought running through his head was _oh god, Ms. Knightley is going to be so unbearably smug when she finds out…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "To err is human, to forgive, divine."  
> -Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Part II.

Poe walked out to his car ten minutes later, his mind still reeling from the encounter with Jessika. The party was winding down inside, and he took a moment to pace outside among the parked cars to collect his thoughts before he drove off.

He heard the sturdy click of heels in the distance, and looked up to see Ms. Knightley walking down the driveway.

Strangely enough, she didn’t look smug at all.

Poe leaned against his car and watched as she came over, slumping back against the side of his car with him. They were quiet for a few moments, silently watching as Finn put away the dishes through the window.

“You’re not even going to say ‘I told you so?’” Poe asked.

“No,” she said, and tried to resist a smile. “So I take it Jessika made a move.”

“She did.”

“And you turned her down?”

“Of course,” Poe said. “I wouldn’t do that to Harry.” He looked inside at the plastic container still sitting on the passenger seat in his car and groaned. “Shit.”

“What?”

“I brought soup to take to Harry after the party…I’m going to have to tell him. I may as well do it now, before school on Monday.”

Ms. Knightley leaned closer to him, looking genuinely concerned. “That…that’s not going to be easy.”

“You’re telling me.” He rested his forehead on the cool metal and sighed, wishing he could disappear.

Poe lifted his head up a minute later and saw her watching him again, looking into his eyes, trying to read him like one of her books. “You’re a good guy, Poe Dameron,” she said, reaching out to punch his arm. “Even if it doesn’t feel like it’s true right now.”

“I’m really not,” he said, kicking a pebble across the street. “Once again, just like you always say, I’ve meddled too much and fucked everything up—and now I’ve hurt Harry, too.”

“You are though,” she said. She was looking at him differently, in a way that seemed to make her eyes look softer, brighter even, and he couldn’t quite figure out what was so different about her. “Even though your plans don’t always work out, you always have good intentions—and you want to help people more than anyone I’ve ever met—you have a real kindness. I’ve always…admired that about you.”

Poe squinted at her. “Did you have too much wine?”

“I mean it!” she laughed. “Harry will forgive you. Don’t beat yourself up too much, okay?”

“Okay,” Poe said, and they smiled at each other in the dark.

***

Poe winced as he rang Harry’s doorbell. The Tupperware container of chicken noodle soup felt pathetic and inadequate in his hands when considering the news he had to deliver with it.

“Hey,” Poe said, looking down at the ground as Harry opened the door. He was wearing a green bathrobe and worn slippers, his hair sticking up in all directions.

“How was the party?” he asked. Despite being ill, he looked extremely pleased to see him, which made it even harder for Poe to look him in the eye.

“Not great,” Poe said, nervously running a hand through his hair. “Can I come in?”

Harry nodded and showed him through the door, leading him into a small living room. It was messy but homey, with books stacked in the corners and mugs of tea scattered about.

“You didn’t have to bring me soup,” Harry said, accepting the container as they sat down on the couch. Poe grimaced. After what happened tonight, he was prepared to make him an olympic swimming pool’s worth of it.

“No, I did,” Poe said. “I need to apologize.”

“For what?”

“Um,” Poe said. “So Jessika was at the party…”

“And? Did she say anything about me?”

Poe sighed. He felt like he was slowly pulling off a bandaid. “No she um…she took me upstairs and uh—”

 _Just rip it off._ “She might of…tried to seduce me?”

Harry didn’t look surprised, just disappointed as the news sank in. “Oh,” he said. “I mean…I guess I should have known a woman like her would’ve been more interested in you than in me. I was just…being stupid.”

“No, no, listen,” Poe said, turning to Harry and looking right at him. “This is my fault. I talked you into being interested in Jessika and didn’t think it through. I’m an idiot. And frankly, Jessika is an idiot if she’s not interested in you—you’re a great guy Harry.”

“Thanks,” he said, staring down at the carpet. “I shouldn’t have been so…”

“Hey,” Poe said. “No more about this being your fault. It’s mine entirely. Finn and Rose are always getting on my case about meddling with everyone’s personal lives, and they’re probably right. Please promise never to listen to me again.”

Harry laughed. “I promise.”

“I’m not even kidding,” Poe said. “And whoever you set your eye on next, I promise to shut my mouth and let you do all the work yourself—and I’ll support you 100% of the way. I swear.”

“Thanks, Poe,” he said. “I appreciate it. But—”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t _you_ want to date Jessika?”

He shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“You don’t have to stay away from her for my sake.”

“It’s not just that,” Poe said, leaning back on the couch. “Jess and I…we don’t…click.”

“Really…” Harry said. “Why _don’t_ you have a girlfriend, by the way?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I try to date, sometimes, but I just get so…bored.”

“Jessika doesn’t seem boring.”

Poe sighed. “She laughs at everything I say, even if it’s not funny. She acts like all of my faults don’t exist, and that doesn’t feel as good as it sounds. It makes me feel like…like I’m finished…like I’m done. Like there’s nowhere I could grow as a person from here. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“It does,” Harry said. “And I hope one day you do find someone you click with, somewhere out there.”

Poe scoffed. “If that woman exists, she probably lives in Timbuktu. That would be just my luck.”

Harry laughed. “Should we microwave some soup?”

“That sounds like the perfect way to end the evening.”

***

Poe walked into the teacher’s lounge at lunch on Monday to the sound of someone swearing.

It was Karé, digging through the inside of the fridge; moving about cartons and groaning in frustration. “I’m gonna kill someone.”

“What happened?”

“My lunch. It’s gone. I don’t believe it. My second week here and someone’s already stolen my lunch.”

“Well what was it?”

Karé looked up at him with disbelief. “What does that matter, Poe?”

“It matters,” he said. “There’s a difference between say, a peanut butter and jelly going missing vs. like, really good restaurant leftovers.”

“It was just pasta,” she sighed.

“Well,” he said. “I bet someone like you has really exceptional pasta.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Poe said, and winked at her.

Poe looked up as he heard a familiar click of heels enter the room.

“Excuse me,” Ms. Knightley said, frowning as she ducked between him and Karé to get into the fridge. She pulled out a small salad and a bottle of iced tea. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“Someone stole Karé’s pasta,” Poe informed her.

“Really?” Ms. Knightley said, clearing her throat. “That’s too bad.”

Karé was about to say something when Principal Daniels rushed in, scrolling through his email with a look of complete horror on his face.

“This is a disaster,” he said, turning to one of the assistant principals. “I’m afraid there’s no hope for the Homecoming dance this time.”

“What’s the problem?” Ms. Knightley asked.

“Oh, it’s Jessika,” he said, still scrolling frantically through his phone. “She emailed this morning saying that she’s taking two weeks off for a family emergency. Goodness! She was entirely in charge of Homecoming and now we have no one to run the event.”

Poe felt his face flush at the mention of Jessika’s absence. Was there really an emergency, or had she really been so embarrassed by his rejection that she’d fled?

“I can do it,” Poe said.

“Me too,” Karé added. “Just send Poe and I the info and we’ll take care of it.”

“ _Really_!?” Principal Daniels exclaimed, clasping his hands together and practically standing up on tiptoe. “That would just be _wonderful,_ thank you, yes, thank you! I’ll email you everything right away.” He scurried out of the room, and Ms. Knightley looked up at Karé with a flat expression.

“Pretty ambitious to plan a Homecoming dance when you’ve just started here,” she said.

“Well you know,” Karé said, fluffing her hair. “It’s for the kids.”

“Uh huh.”

“It’ll be fun,” Poe said, wrapping an arm around Karé’s shoulders. “We can choose a theme, hang decorations, get everything ready…it’s required for teachers to be at Homecoming anyway, so we may as well make the most of it.”

Karé laughed. “And do the teachers dance?”

“The cool ones do,” he said, grinning knowingly at Ms. Knightley. “Although some of them…”

“Look, I’ve told you I’m not a good dancer,” Ms. Knightley said. “Especially when it comes to twerking and whipping and nay-naying or whatever it is people do now. I’d like my students to retain at least a small modicum of respect for me, thank you very much.”

“Whatever you say,” Poe said, and Ms. Knightley just rolled her eyes.

***

On Tuesday, the teachers of Jakku High were met with a mystery even more intriguing than a stolen lunch—

It was an electric guitar.

It was white and ruby red, brand new and obviously very expensive, with an amp and all of the accessories included. It had been addressed to Snap Wexley, anonymously, and left in the center of the teacher’s lounge.

They stared at it and waited for Snap to arrive.

Finn circled around the guitar, titling his head and examining it closely. “You think Principal Daniels gave it to him? He’s just being a nice uncle?”

“I already asked,” one of the math teachers whispered. “It wasn’t him.”

Poe tried not to feel annoyed as the teachers ogled the instrument, oohing and ahhing and comparing their various theories on who had sent it. Did Poe have a similar electric guitar at home? Yes—But it had been a Christmas gift from his dad, it hadn’t been—well it hadn’t been plopped in the middle of his workplace for everyone to drool over. He didn’t feel the need to _show it off._ He couldn’t imagine Kes pulling a stunt like this, leaving it in the middle of the teacher’s lounge. Whoever had was clearly out of their mind.

“You know,” Rose said. “Snap was saying to everyone at our party the other night that he didn’t have an electric and had always wanted one. Maybe someone overheard.”

“A _secret admirer,”_ Finn said, raising his eyebrows, and Rose giggled.

“I don’t know,” Poe said. “A secret admirer would send flowers, chocolates maybe. A whole guitar? Something that expensive?”

“A _fabulously rich_ secret admirer,” Rose said, mock swooning into Finn’s arms.

Poe looked across the room at Ms. Knightley, who was absorbed in her book, not caught up in the mad speculation in the least. She was turned away from the crowd, sipping her tea as she flipped pages.

“A bit suspicious, don’t you think?”

He turned around to see Karé smiling at him. “Really?” he asked. “You’re seriously suggesting that _Ms. Knightley_ sent it?”

“She has said a lot of nice things about Snap lately,” Karé said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was harboring a little crush.”

Something about that sentence made Poe’s stomach turn. “I don’t think so,” he said. “She’s a bit too practical for some…big romantic gesture like that.”

“Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“It could have been Ms. Dixon,” Karé said.

“Who?”

“This French teacher back at Weymouth High,” Karé explained. “Everyone knew she was sweet on him. They chaperoned this Biology field trip together where all the kids were on a boat taking water samples or something. Snap nearly fell off at some point and Ms. Dixon caught him. Practically saved his life.”

“That sounds a little ridiculous,” Poe said.

“Oh, and sending an electric guitar to someone’s workplace isn’t?”

Rose looked out the door and turned back to the rest of the teachers. “You guys!” she squealed. “He’s coming!”

Karé patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll talk to you about Homecoming stuff later, okay?”

“Wait, you don’t want to stay and see what Snap has to say about this?”

“You can tell me later,” she said, and slipped out without another word.

Snap was stunned when he walked in, both delighted and confused by the instrument before him, as if he couldn’t quite believe it was his. He was apparently just as puzzled as to who had sent it as the rest of them.

Everyone begged him to play something on it, and so he did, the teachers cheering as he played a particularly complicated riff. He smiled and blushed as the staff circled adoringly around him.

Poe made himself a black coffee at the machine and left, gulping the bitter liquid down. He’d had just about enough of Snap Wexley for today, and it was barely eight a.m.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love."  
> -Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

**Two Weeks Later**

The teacher’s lounge was filled with excited murmurs when Poe and Harry walked in together that morning, most of the staff crowded around Rose’s phone.

“I don’t believe it,” Finn said. “Are you sure she hasn’t known him longer?”

“Nope,” Rose said. “It says here they met on the cruise.”

“Who met who on the what?” Poe asked, and he noticed Ms. Knightley’s face go pale.

“Jessika Pava,” Rose said. “She’s engaged.”

Poe turned to Harry before he could even process his own shock, making sure he was okay. Harry didn’t look so much upset as he did confused, crowding into the circle of teachers to look at Rose’s screen. It displayed a new Instagram post from Jessika, showing her and a muscular blond man standing on a beach while she pointed at a diamond ring on her finger.

“Principal Daniels said she was taking two weeks off for a family emergency,” Ms. Knightley snarked. “That is not what this looks like.”

“Family emergency my ass,” Finn said. “She’s been working on her tan and sipping on mojitos the whole time—and apparently met the ‘love of her life’ while she was there.”

“Who is he?” Harry asked. “He must be pretty great if Jessika already decided she wants to spend the rest of her life with him.” There was a hint of bitterness in his voice.

“He’s tagged in it,” Poe said, pulling up the post on his own phone. “Let me stalk this guy a bit…” He found the man’s profile and scrolled through dozens of photos of him either shirtless in his bathroom mirror, getting wasted at parties, or holding up dead fish. “His name is Jared Jared Binks.”

“Wait,” Finn said. “Say that again?”

“Jared Jared Binks.”

“Jared _Jared_? Two Jared’s?” Finn looked genuinely offended. “Does anyone really need to be named Jared more than once?”

Poe held up his phone. “Apparently this guy does.”

“We need to stop letting white people name their kids,” Rose mumbled into her coffee.

Poe stared at the picture of Jessika and her ring again, as if it would eventually yield some explanation to him that hadn’t been there before. It didn’t make any sense. It had only been two weeks since Jessika had tried to seduce him, and a week before that he had been so entirely sure that she had been interested in Harry. How had he been so completely wrong about everything?

“Hey,” Poe said, walking over to where Harry was fixing his coffee. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “I’m a little flattered to not be her type if that’s the kind of guy she goes for.”

“Hey!” Poe joked.

“Sorry, sorry,” Harry laughed. “You know what I mean. She can’t be that great if she got engaged to some weird dudebro that fast. I probably dodged a bullet. We both did.”

“Well, cheers to that,” Poe said, holding up his coffee cup.

***

Poe’s second-period class was excellent that day. He had the students move their desks in a circle as they dissected and annotated a series of poems—Mary Oliver, Claude McKay, T. S. Eliot. They marveled at the new meanings coming to light before them, springboarding off of each other’s ideas until they were giddy from their discoveries. It was the kind of day that reminded Poe of why he had become a teacher in the first place.

As the bell rang and the students filed out (were…were Anakin and Padme holding hands? That was a new development) he saw Ms. Knightley standing in the doorway, smiling at him in her navy pencil skirt and matching sweater.

“Hey,” Poe said as she walked over to his desk. “So I assume you want to discuss the big news of the day?”

She laughed. “I still haven’t quite processed it yet. I suppose you should be honored to have inspired such an epically drastic rebound.”

Poe shrugged. “I’ll give my speech later.”

“Is his name really Jared _Jared_? Is that a middle name or is it just a first name twice?”

“Even someone with my infinite wisdom can’t unlock the secrets of the white dudebros who hold up dead fish.”

Ms. Knightley shook her head and sat down on the edge of Poe’s desk, perched next to where he was spinning in lazy circles in his office chair. “By the way,” she said. “How’s Homecoming planning coming along?”

“Pretty good,” Poe said, and smiled smugly. “I got to pick the theme.”

“Oh, did you?”

“Yep. _Roman Holiday._ ”

“Like the movie?” Ms. Knightley asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “That’s not what I would have expected from you, Poe Dameron.”

“It was my mom’s favorite,” he said. “I thought it would be fun. Romantic, not too hard to put together. Karé agreed. We’re finishing the decorations this afternoon.”

She scoffed. “Have fun.”

Poe squinted up at her. “You _really_ don’t like her, do you?”

“I don’t know,” Rey said. “I just…I get a weird feeling about her. I feel like she’s hiding something.”

“She’s perfectly nice,” Poe said. “I think you’re just being paranoid.”

“I’m allowed my opinions.”

“You know, I bet you were the one who stole her pasta.”

Ms. Knightley flushed suddenly, and Poe gasped. “ _No._ ”

“Shut up! My lunch spilled in the parking lot and she was _really_ pissing me off that day!”

Poe couldn’t stop laughing. “The esteemed Ms. Knightley, a common pasta thief. I never thought I’d see the—”

“If you tell her I’ll kill you.”

Poe spun around in his chair, an evil grin appearing on his face. “I’ll keep your secret…on one condition.”

Ms. Knightley groaned. “What.”

“You have to dance at Homecoming Saturday.”

“What?!?”

“You heard me,” he said. “Either I _finally_ get to see your sweet dance moves, or Karé finds out.”

“It’s a dangerous business,” Ms. Knightley said. “You know the second any teacher does anything more exciting than walk it ends up on TikTok. I’d rather not be the laughing stock of the whole school, thank you very much.”

Poe rolled his eyes. “We are _not_ going to end up on TikTok. These kids are too caught up in their own drama to care. I could twerk in the middle of the dance floor and I promise you not one of them would notice.”

“With your ass? I doubt it.”

Ms. Knightley froze in terror once she realized the words had left her mouth.

Poe looked up at her with an almost feral grin. “You think I have a nice ass?”

“You know what,” she said, her face flushing scarlet as she started walking backward out of the room. “I’m going to…I’m gonna go…do a thing now.”

“Don’t think I didn’t hear you, sweetheart.”

“I said nothing!”

“Uh huh,” Poe smirked, and he laughed as Ms. Knightley flipped him off and walked out the door.

***

Poe and Karé stepped back and looked at the gym, admiring their work. The theme really had come together well. The usually bland and dirty gymnasium had been transformed into their own little version of Rome. Different paper-mache landmarks were located in each corner of the room, each one crafted by a different grade. There was the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Mouth of Truth, and the Trevi Fountain, each painted and crafted with far more skill than Poe would have expected from high-schoolers. He and Karé had completed the look by hanging string lights and vines of ivy around the room, and setting up a table in the corner that held water bottles and boxes of pizza. It was a quarter to eight, and people would starting rolling in any minute.

“Not bad,” Karé said, giving Poe a high-five. “If I was very, very drunk, I might actually think I was in Rome.”

“Too bad these kids aren’t twenty-one.”

“Bold of you to assume none of them will sneak anything in.”

They wandered over to the Mouth of Truth, Karé gazing up at it curiously. “What’s the legend behind this thing again?”

“Well apparently,” Poe said, sticking his hand in the open paper-mache mouth. “It can sense lies. It’ll bite your hand right off if you tell it one.” He smiled at her encouragingly as he wiggled his fingers. “Wanna try it?”

She grimaced at the rock face. “I think I’ll pass,” she said, and turned away to straighten up the food table.

Poe wandered out near the entrance, where the photographer was setting up a backdrop of the Colosseum and awaiting the line of couples that would be here any minute. He was relieved to see Finn and Rose come through the door, Finn in a blue tux, and Rose in a sequined strapless dress to match it.

“Hey!” Finn said, coming through the door. “You look great, man.”

Poe smiled and returned the compliment, although in reality he was feeling a bit underdressed. He had decided to try and emulate Gregory Peck’s outfit from the movie, donning a gray jacket and pants over a white shirt and tie. But so far, he seemed to be the only one embracing a look inspired by the film—maybe he should have gone for something a little more standard.

“These decorations are amazing!” Rose exclaimed, walking into the gym and looking around. “You and Karé sure do make a great team.”

“Thanks,” Poe said, and just as he was about to explain his strategy with the layout, he saw a couple walking in through the doors and froze.

“Oh _shit,_ ” Rose whispered. “She’s back.”

They looked over and watched as Jessika walked in wearing a pretty orange gown, surveying the room with a tall blond man on her arm. He was wearing a tux and grimacing, as if he still couldn’t believe he’d been forced into attending a high school dance.

“Jessika!” Rose called over before anyone could stop her. “You’re back!”

Jessika gave her a tight-lipped smile and wandered over, her fiancé following blindly on her arm.

“I was _so_ sorry to hear about your family emergency,” Finn said, barely masking his sarcasm. “I hope everything’s okay.”

She glared at him. “It’s fine. It all worked out.”

“Clearly,” Poe said, glancing up at her fiancé. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Of course,” Jessika said, giving Poe a nearly undetectable sneer. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my new fiancé, Jared Jared Binks.”

“Hey,” Jared said. He gave Poe and Finn firm handshakes, and skipped over Rose entirely. “Sucks that your boss makes you go to this thing.”

Poe tilted his head defensively. “It’s actually a lot of fun.”

“If you say so,” Jessika said, glaring at Poe. He wondered what her fiancé would think if he knew that it had only been a couple of weeks since Jessika had tried to sleep with him. “We’re just so excited about the engagement, we’d rather be doing something else.”

“Something a little classier,” Jared said. “You know, where I grew up, the school actually put a little bit of money and effort into these things. My _cara sposa_ and I have a list of the most exclusive restaurants in town, and we’re trying to hit them all before the wedding.”

“How nice,” Rose said flatly.

“Anyway,” Finn said to Jared, who was already bored and scrolling through his phone. “I was wondering. What’s up with the two Jared’s? That’s not a thing you usually see.”

“Funny you should ask,” Jared replied, finally looking up. “You see, my father always wanted to name me after his father, but my mother…”

Jared’s response faded to the background as Poe looked over toward the door, swearing, for a split second, that he was seeing the ghost of Audrey Hepburn.

But it wasn’t—it was Ms. Knightley.

She was wearing a replica of Audrey’s costume from the movie: a long blue skirt with a short-sleeved white blouse; a tiny striped scarf tied around her neck; her hair done up. She walked into the gym and sighed happily, gazing around at the decorations with wide eyes. Her gaze traveled the room, going from the Pantheon, to the Mouth of Truth, and finally, to Poe.

When she saw what he was wearing, she smiled so wide he thought his heart would burst.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “...When you do dance, I wish you  
> A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do  
> Nothing but that.”  
> William Shakespeare. A Winter’s Tale. IV. IV. 163-65.

“Well,” Ms. Knightley said, walking up to Poe with the grin still wide across her face. “I’m glad someone else got the memo.”

“Princess Ann,” he said, and bowed. “Glad you could join us.”

“Likewise,” she said, her eyes widening as she looked behind him. “Is that Jessika’s new fiancé? What’s he like?”

“Stupider than his name sounds, if you can believe that.”

Ms. Knightley looked at him and scrunched her face. “I can.”

Poe grabbed them some water bottles and led them to the corner of the room, where they stood and watched the students walking in.

“What do you imagine that cost?” Ms. Knightley whispered, looking over at Padmé. Her dress was stunning, a satin gown that shimmered as she walked, yellow fading into pink and then purple, like a sunset.

“That’s Padmé Amidala—she’s quite the fashionista,” Poe responded. “Although I’m more curious to see if she shows up with her new—” he smirked. “Ah. There he is.”

Anakin Skywalker approached her and took her hand, looking handsome and completely smitten in his black shirt and suit. They were lost in another world together, giggling under the lights as a group of Padmé’s friends gave them the side eye.

“Oh to be young and in love,” Ms. Knightley said.

Poe turned to her with a curious smile. “And what were your Homecoming dances like, Rey Knightley?”

“You’re forgetting I went to school in England. We didn’t really have Homecoming.”

“Yeah, but you had _dances._ ”

“Yes.”

“…And?”

She looked down at the floor and shook her head. “I keep telling you I’m not a dancer. Like…at all.”

“No? I’m sure you broke the hearts of a lot of boys who would have loved to sweep you into their arms.”

She scoffed. “You’ve got quite an imagination, Dameron.”

“It’s…it’s not hard for me to imagine,” Poe said, meeting her eyes, the charge between them suddenly electric.

Just as Rey was about to respond, Leia Organa pushed in-between them, storming towards a sullen-looking Han Solo on the other side of the dance floor.

“Unbelievable!” she shouted. “Absolutely unbelievable! I _told_ you we were going to need you to drive because Lando and Wedge were going to the afterparty at Luke’s house! But did you listen to me!? No, you couldn’t even bother to respond to ANY of the texts I sent you, and now—”

“Calm down, princess,” Han said, leaning up against the pizza table. “I thought we were just going to make an appearance and then leave! It’s been twenty minutes!”

“I am _class president_. I’m sorry if this dance is cramping your style, but _I_ have an obligation to be here! Some of us actually PARTICIPATE at this school, and if you want to—”

“I’m going to go deal with this before someone gets tackled in the middle of the dance floor,” Ms. Knightley said, touching Poe’s arm. “Excuse me.”

As she walked over and tried to diffuse the situation, Poe noticed Harry Beaumont come in. He was looking nice this evening in a green button-down, brown pants, and a fun tie that looked to have ancient roman tablets printed on it.

“Happy Homecoming,” Poe said.

“Thanks,” Harry said, grabbing a water bottle. “It looks like you and Karé did a pretty nice job.”

There was an awkward silence as Jessika and Jared Jared walked by, giggling at some poor freshman girl who was trying her best to dance.

“Yeah,” Poe said, raising his eyebrows. “So _they’re_ here.”

“Did you meet him?”

“Yep. And he was even worse in person than I thought he’d be.”

“I can’t imagine.”

Just as Poe was about elaborate further on Jared Jared and his infinite charms, bells went off in his pocket. He pulled out his ringing phone. It was Kes.

He moved to a quieter corner of the room. “Hey, Dad.”

“Poe! I’m glad I could reach you. So you know the medicine cabinet?”

“Which one?”

“The one over the microwave.”

“Uh huh,” Poe said, watching as the DJ flipped the music to a slow song. A lot of the teachers were pairing off and heading to the dance floor, with Rose and Finn in the lead. Harry stood next to him, shifting awkwardly in his shoes.

“Anyway, Dr. Kanata told me to take something that started with an ‘M’ last week, only I can’t remember what it was. It was…magnesium or melatonin or…something? I know I mentioned it to you because—”

As Kes rambled on, Poe noticed Jess standing next to Principal Daniels, waiting for Jared Jared to return from wherever he’d gone off to.

“Jessika!” Principal Daniels said warmly, and gestured to Harry. “Our wonderful Mr. Beaumont doesn’t seem to have a partner yet. Why don’t you ask him to dance?”

Jessika scoffed, and in a voice loud enough for half the room to hear, said, “I have _standards,_ Principal Daniels. Excuse me.”

Poe looked over at Harry in a panic as Kes rambled on “—so I’m looking at the bottles. One of them I’m supposed to take at night; and the other in the morning. But what I can’t figure out is…” As much as Harry had seemed recovered from the Jessika situation, her comment had clearly still hurt, and he looked absolutely despondent as he stood alone on the edge of the dance floor. He prayed for his dad to hurry up and get to the point so he could go and give a comforting word.

“Dr. Kanata said that with my headaches and my indigestion I should…”

Poe watched as Ms. Knightley walked over, still enchanting in her Audrey-inspired outfit, and held out a hand to Harry. “Would you dance with me?”

Harry blushed a little and nodded. “Of course, Ms. Knightley,” he said. “I’d be delighted.”

Ms. Knightley grabbed his hand and led him out to the center of the dance floor, where they swayed in time to the music, laughing and smiling. Ms. Knightley—the woman who had only just sworn to him that she never danced.

But she had heard Jessika’s words.

—and Rey was kind.

Poe caught her eye as they turned across the dance floor. He beamed at her with gratitude, and she smiled back in silent understanding. Ms. Knightley had been wrong—she was a wonderful dancer, graceful and elegant, her chin held high as Harry spun her around, her long skirt billowing out around her ankles.

“Poe? Poe? Are you even listening to me?”

“Sorry Dad, the music here is a bit loud…what were you saying?”

“Which one am I supposed to take?” Kes shouted into the phone as the song returned to something more upbeat.

“The melatonin,” Poe said. “You take the melatonin at night to sleep, Dad.”

Poe sighed with relief as he hung up, turning his attention back to the dance floor. It was getting to the point of the night where things were winding down, the girls taking off their heels and the boys loosening their ties. Groups of students left to go to afterparties or to take final rounds of pictures outside.

“Why Mr. Dameron,” Principal Daniels said, walking up to him. “I must say your dance was a complete success! I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out.”

“Thank you,” Poe said. “Karé and I did our best.”

“ _Such_ atmosphere with these decorations,” he observed, reaching up to touch a string of twinkle lights. “It’s almost a shame that we’re going to have to take them all down in ten minutes.”

“The evening certainly went by fast.”

“Ah, yes,” Principal Daniels said, smiling and walking away. “There’s only one dance left.”

The DJ put on the last song, something old and swingy and slow with the quality of an old record, the music flowing out across the emptying dance floor.

When Poe looked out across the gym, he found exactly who he was looking for.

“So,” he said, walking up to Ms. Knightley with a smirk and an outstretched hand. “I think I remember you promising me to dance.”

She scoffed and shook her head. “‘Promise’ is an interesting way to phrase blackmail,” she teased. “And I’ll have you know I already danced with Harry.”

“I know,” he said. “And that was beyond awesome of you— _but_ —you have to forgive me for wanting a dance with you all to myself.”

Ms. Knightley gave him a challenging look. “I fulfilled the terms of our agreement. I danced.”

“I’m changing the terms.”

“And what gives you the right to do that?”

Poe smirked. “Being the person with the blackmail material, that’s what. Unless you want me to let Karé know that you’re the spaghetti stealer…”

“Damn you.”

“The penne purloiner…the linguini looter…”

“You are incredible, you know that.”

“I can come up with more.”

Ms. Knightley laughed, surrendering and letting Poe take her hand and lead her to the center of the dance floor. There were only a few couples left, students tired out from jumping up and down and singing all night; barely awake.

Poe took a deep breath and put his hands on her waist, where she was soft and warm under his touch, and Ms. Knightley wrapped her hands around his neck, pulling him closer. He didn’t know why he was so nervous—he felt the way he had at _his_ high school dances, so terrified of messing up, so dazzled by the girls he danced with that he thought the breath had left his body.

She looked up at him nervously. “You know sometimes…sometimes I’m very afraid that you think I hate you. It’s important to me that you know that I don’t.”

“I know,” Poe said.

“I give everyone a hard time,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder, and Poe felt his heart skip a beat. “But it’s only because I care about them.”

Poe tightened his grip on her waist, his thumbs stroking the fabric of her skirt. “You’re the only person who cares about me that way,” he said. “The only person brave enough to tell me when…when I’m not being my best self. That I can be better.”

Ms. Knightley shook her head, looking as if she was about to either laugh or cry. “That’s a very nice way of saying I’m an asshole.”

“I’m not saying you’re an asshole,” Poe said, lifting up her chin. “I’m saying you’re my _favorite_ asshole.”

Ms. Knightley burst into laughter, and Poe held onto her as she caught her breath, staring up at him with bright eyes—he had always loved her eyes, the glimmer of hazel and gold, the way they sparkled when she laughed. Poe wondered if the only reason he told so many jokes around her was because of how much he adored the way her face lit up.

“Gregory Peck would have never said that,” she joked, and they continued dancing, the violins and trumpets sweeping them across the room.

Poe scoffed. “Gregory Peck didn’t have my hair.”

“He still had pretty good hair.”

“Yeah, well, guess which one of us isn’t dead.”

“Poe! That’s terrible!”

They laughed as Poe spun her around, watching her beam in delight at the way her skirt twirled below her. The song was coming to a crescendo, nearing the end. But he didn’t want his eyes to leave hers, didn’t want to take his hands off her waist, where she was so soft and lovely in his arms, laughing at his jokes, her cheeks flushing as she dared to inch closer, so they were pressed close together at last…

“Poe…” she whispered as the song ended, and suddenly there was a crash from the far side of the room.

“Fuck!” Karé shouted, and the room turned to watch the entire paper-mache Colosseum collapse in on itself.

“I’ve got to um—” Poe said, pointing to the wreckage.

“Go,” Ms. Knightley said, pushing him forward, and he left her standing in the middle of the dance floor.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."  
> -Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina.

Poe turned on the radio and drove down the highway, sipping from his thermos of coffee as he made his way to work. It’d been a busy weekend—after Homecoming on Saturday, he’d spent nearly all of Sunday running errands with his dad and helping him clean up around the house, so he hadn’t had much time to think about the dance…

_About Ms. Knightley, bright-eyed and blushing in his arms…_

Oh yes, it was Monday. His sophomores had an in-class essay on _Jane Eyre_ today. He certainly hoped the prompt he’d given them wasn’t too difficult, and after thinking it over maybe he should of—

Something caught his eye on the side of the road, and he noticed two familiar cars pulled over. They were about a mile away from the school, in a residential area, and only then did he spot Karé Kun and Harry Beaumont standing together.

Poe pulled up next to them. “Is everything okay?”

“Hey” Harry said. “I’m just fine, thanks to Karé.”

“Harry got a flat tire at about the worst possible time,” Karé said, triumphantly holding up a toolbox. “But luckily, I was here with a spare.”

“She saved my life,” Harry said, looking at her with warmth in his eyes. “Really, I can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s not a problem,” Karé said, winking at him as she put her toolbox back in her car. “I always appreciate a chance to show off my mechanic skills.”

“Glad to hear everything’s okay,” Poe said, waving goodbye as he got back into his car. “See you guys in a few.”

They waved him off as he drove away, the two of them still laughing and smiling as he made his way down the road. Harry certainly looked happy, despite the circumstances—he was glowing around Karé in a way he’d never seen before. Perhaps—

 _No._ Poe told himself. No more matchmaking—he’d learned his lesson. If Harry was interested in dating Karé, he would let him figure that out on his own. No more interfering.

***

Poe’s second-period students were ten minutes into their essay when the fire alarm started blaring.

The kids let out quiet cheers as they put their pencils down and walked out the door, relieved and no doubt already trading ideas on how to finish up their essays—oh well, Poe thought, grabbing a small yellow pouch from his desk and going down the stairs after them—at least it was a nice day. It was warm for an October morning, the bright leaves crunching underfoot as the students and staff of Jakku High made their way to the football field.

Poe’s students lined up behind him as he checked them all off on his attendance list. The kids were already treating the drill like it was a mini-vacation, sitting down in the grass to lounge and talk, sunning themselves. So much for Charlotte Brontë.

Ms. Knightley’s students were a few rows over, still standing in a straight line as she gave them some sort of instructions. She was glowing in the autumn sun, her cheeks pink as she walked the football field in a long black skirt and an oversized orange sweater. She looked like she could be at a pumpkin patch, or apple picking, or wrapped in a blanket under a full moon, maybe even wrapped up next to—

“Oh, _dear,_ ” Principal Daniels interrupted, and Poe jumped, turning away from Rey. “I’m afraid I have some _terrible_ news.”

“What?” Poe asked, looking over his attendance sheet.

“This wasn’t a scheduled drill, you know. It appears there was a small accident in the science labs—nothing serious, but the fire department is still required to spend an hour or two inspecting the building before we’re allowed back inside. I’m afraid we’ll be out here for quite some time.”

“Ah,” Poe said, grimacing. “At least it’s a nice day for it.”

“I suppose,” Principal Daniels said, staring regretfully back at the school building. “I just detest when something like this puts us off schedule.” He wandered away to deliver the news to the other teachers, his head sagging like a lonely schoolboy’s.

Now that the news was getting out that they’d be outside for a couple more hours, everyone started to relax. Lines and classes started to break up, and the students began walking across the field to seek out their friends—so naturally, the teachers began to group together, too.

“Poe! Poe!” Rose called from across the field. “Please, please, _please_ tell me you brought Bananagrams.”

Poe held up the yellow pouch with a smile. “Wouldn’t be a fire drill without it.”

Rose pumped a fist, and soon the other teachers began to gather around him, bored, restless, and ready for something to keep them occupied. Five minutes later they had a group set up at the edge of the football field, with Finn, Harry, Snap, Karé, and Ms. Knightley joining in.

Just as they were about to begin passing out alphabet tiles, two shadows appeared on the grass. “Do you have room for two more?”

It was Jessika Pava and, god help them, Jared Jared Binks.

“Since when do you work here, Jared?” Rose sneered.

“He’s visiting,” Jessika snapped back at her, and they took their seats on the grass.

Poe began passing out tiles, noting the uncomfortable silence that fell over the group as soon as Jessika and Jared sat down.

“I think I’m missing a tile,” Ms. Knightley said, and Poe reached across the circle to drop one into her hand, his fingertips just brushing over her palm. He shivered at the contact.

“There,” Poe said. “Everyone good?”

The group nodded, and Poe looked up. “Split!”

Everyone flipped over their pieces and began arranging them, the tiles sliding and tapping against each other as they kneeled in the grass.

Karé was sitting next to Poe with a huge smile on her face, nudging him discreetly. “Hey,” she whispered, and gestured down to her tiles, where the letters ‘D-I-X-O-N’ were arranged in a neat row.

“Isn’t that the teacher Snap had a thing with at your old school?”

“Yup.”

“ _Karé!”_

“Maybe if he reacts we’ll have proof that she was the one who sent him the guitar!”

“Yeah but—”

“BANANAS!” Karé yelled out, and there was no time left for Poe to convince her to change her mind.

“Let’s see,” Rose said, examining Karé’s board. “Dixon?”

Snap paled. “I didn’t know we were allowed to use proper nouns.”

“We’re not,” Ms. Knightley said, giving Karé a sharp look she usually reserved for her misbehaving students. “We’re going to have to call rotten banana, I’m afraid.”

“Fine,” Karé sighed. “Let’s keep going.”

Poe watched Snap from the corner of his eye as he pretended to work at arranging his tiles. He didn’t have the happy, easygoing expression he usually did—in fact, he looked rather upset. Perhaps Karé’s word really had distressed him. Was he heartbroken? Did this confirm that the mysterious Ms. Dixon from Weymouth High was the one who’d sent him the guitar?

To make matters worse for Snap, Jared Jared was trying to befriend him by pestering him about a teaching job in California. “It’s in a much better school district,” Jared was saying, shuddering at the students around him. “It’s where I went to school, actually. You’d be much better off, and they need a music teacher. I have plenty of connections, and I’d be happy to talk to—”

“I really like Jakku High,” Snap said, focusing on his tiles. “Thank you, but I’m fine.”

“Jessika’s told me about how miserable you are all here, I can forward you the—”

“This is a great school,” Ms. Knightley interrupted. “Jessika is entitled to her own opinion, but most of us love it here. We have great teachers and wonderful students. And you can’t steal Snap away to the other side of the country when we’ve only just got him.”

“She’s right,” Poe said, and the rest of the teachers nodded.

Jessika made a face and picked up a tile.

They continued playing for another half hour as the fire department continued their inspection, until finally they were given the signal to come back inside. Poe packed up the tiles in the little yellow bag and walked across the field with Ms. Knightley.

“So,” she said. “Are you going to explain the whole ‘Dixon’ thing to me? Whatever it was, it certainly seemed to make Snap upset.”

Poe shook his head. “You’d just accuse me of gossiping.”

“Tell me!”

“Well,” he said. “You know how Karé and Snap used to work at the same school? Apparently there was a French teacher there, Ms. Dixon, and they had a little bit of a thing—Karé thinks she was the one who sent Snap the guitar the other day.”

Ms. Knightley shook her head. “No…no, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“You think there’s something going on between Snap and Karé?”

Poe stopped in his tracks. “I’m sorry, what!?”

“You don’t see it?”

“Um, no,” he said. “I know you don’t like her very much, but that’s a bit far-fetched.”

“I’m completely serious,” Ms. Knightley said as they walked back inside the school building. “Every time they’re in the same room there’s this…tension. I think if Snap has a past with anyone, it’s her.”

Poe tensed. If Ms. Knightley was already sensing some imaginary connection between Snap and Karé, god knew what she had probably noticed about him—how looking at her was somehow like being blinded by the sun, how every time he met her eyes now he flashed back to that dance, to their hands intertwined under the string lights…

“Just…keep it in mind next time you see them,” she said. “See if you notice anything.”

“Okay,” Poe said. “I will.”

They stood at the corner of the hallway, staring at each other like a teenaged couple parting before they had to head to class. There was something different since Saturday, something new in the air between them, and it was like they were both struggling to put it into words.

“So did you um,” Poe mumbled. “Did you…have to get your skirt dry-cleaned?”

“What?” Ms. Knightley said, smiling, and _ohmygod_ , Poe thought, looking down at her clutching her folders in her giant orange sweater, _she’s so pretty, how have I worked with her every day for three years and never felt the urge to kiss her until now, to take her home with me—we could watch Halloween movies and cuddle on the couch and I could wake up next to her and I bet her hair is so soft and she looks beautiful in the morning and—_

 _Oh,_ Poe thought.

_Fuck._

***

Poe didn’t quite know how to feel as he drove back to his house, but he thought it must be similar to what one would feel after downing three pumpkin spice lattes: delirious, happy….

Nauseated, terrified….

So, he might be…developing a bit of a crush on Ms. Knightley. But that wasn’t even the right way to put it. A crush was new, a crush inched forward a little bit at a time. This was like getting an anvil dropped on your head, like seeing in color for the first time. Those feelings had always been there, latent, just waiting for some signal: a stupid slow dance, red cheeks in an orange sweater…

—back to the nausea.

But it didn’t _matter_ if he had feelings for her, he realized as he walked into his house. It didn’t matter because Ms. Knightley had always made it very clear that she’d never thought very much of him. She thought he was silly, with his meddling and his jealousy and his need to charm everyone all the time. She would want someone more serious, more humble…someone like Snap, probably.

“Oh, Mijo,” Kes said as Poe pulled a beer out of the fridge. “Long day?”

“Fire drill.”

Kes looked up at him dubiously. “You love fire drills! You always save the day with that…that fruit scrabble thing. Something else is bothering you.”

Poe slumped down in his chair and twisted the top off of his beer. “When you met mom, was she out of your league?”

Kes just chuckled. “Obviously.”

“And how on earth did you get her to look at you?”

“It’s funny,” Kes said. “While I was thinking she was out of my league, she was thinking I was out of hers. Whoever this lady is, she probably likes you more than you think. All the girls always went nuts over you, Poe…”

Poe shook his head. “She doesn’t care about looks or charm or my jokes or any of that,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be…serious enough for her. I have a bad feeling she thinks I’m full of shit.”

“And did she tell you that?” Kes asked, and Rey’s words from the dance echoed through his head:

_Sometimes I’m very afraid that you think I hate you. It’s important to me that you know that I don’t…_

“I guess not,” Poe said. “I just—”

“Love makes us vulnerable, son,” Kes said. “And you’ve never been very good at losing. But you still have to go for it, even if you end up looking like a fool.”

“But Dad—”

“I’m serious,” Kes said as he walked upstairs to take his nap. “And hurry up so you can invite her over to dinner.”

Poe laughed, shaking his head. He’d barely had time to ponder his advice when his phone vibrated, and he pulled it out to see a text from Harry.

**Harry Beaumont:** I know this is really soon after the whole Jessika thing, but I think I’m starting to have feelings for someone else. It was so awful to be stuck and embarrassed like that, and after she came to my rescue, I think I might really like her.

_Stuck…embarrassed…rescued…_ Poe broke into a smile as he remembered Karé fixing Harry’s flat tire earlier that morning.

So Harry _did_ like Karé, Poe thought, grinning as he put the phone away. He’d refrain from meddling. He wouldn’t even give any advice. Not this time.

Harry was in love, and Poe was ready to quietly support him from the sidelines.

No matter what.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.”  
> ― Charlotte Brontë. Villette.
> 
> Apologies as it's been a while since I've updated! This was one of those chapters that wrote like it was stuck in molasses and it took me ages for some reason. I'll probably be focusing on Damerey Creations Week stuff for the rest of October, but I'm planning to get the last three chapters up by the end of November. Thanks for sticking with this story! <3

“And just where do you think you’re going?” Kes asked, stopping Poe in his tracks as he made his way to the living room with a giant bag of chips.

Poe gave him a quizzical look. “To…watch tv?”

Kes sighed and pointed at an orange flyer stuck to the fridge.

“Shit,” Poe said, grabbing it. “That’s today?”

“It’s in half an hour!” Kes scolded, shaking his head. “You need to go. _Now._ I don’t know where your head has been lately.”

Poe put down the bag of chips and made his way upstairs to change into dark jeans and an orange flannel. How on earth had he completely forgotten about the fundraiser?

He thought about what his dad had said about his head being elsewhere.

_Oh yeah._

The Box Hill Farm Fall Fundraiser was a tradition at Jakku High. Every year during the last week of October, the teachers and students would flock to the nearby farm for a fall-themed afternoon filled with pumpkins, cider, hay rides, and halloween festivities. As with most school events, Principal Daniels made teacher attendance mandatory. _Which meant…_

Poe smiled, smoothing back his hair in the mirror. Rey Knightley would be there—and maybe he would get a chance to make his move.

Kes was smiling to himself as Poe grabbed his keys and walked out to the car.

“What?” Poe asked.

“It’s like you’ve been walking on clouds these past few weeks…” Kes said, taking a sip of his coffee. “You’ve got it bad for this lady, huh?”

“No comment,” Poe said, shutting the door.

***

No one could say Box Hill Farm wasn’t beautiful this time of year. The fields were covered in festive stacks of pumpkins, gourds, and hay bales, and the sunset colors of the leaves gave the place a warm glow. Various stations were set up for apple picking, face painting, and various snacks and drinks. It was the perfect place to spend an October afternoon.

Poe didn’t see any of it.

All he saw was Rey Knightley, bundled up in a dark purple sweater dress, cradling a cup of hot cider and staring up at the trees.

_Calm down, Dameron. Be cool._

“Hi,” Poe said, meekly lifting up one hand in a small wave. “You’re here.”

Ms. Knightley blushed. “It is mandatory.”

“Um, exactly, yeah!” Poe said. “Of course you’re here, and you’ve got cider. That’s great. Usually the cider is really good, you can really taste the um—the apples, and—” _What are you saying what are you doing SHUT UP._

“Why, Mr. Dameron!” A familiar voice interrupted. “You’ve made it! How wonderful!”

Poe jumped back as Principal Daniels beamed at him. “Yes, yes, I did. Sorry, I’m a little bit late, I um—”

“Oh, nonsense,” he said, leading Poe away from Rey and toward an area where the teachers had spread blankets over the ground. “We are simply very happy that our favorite English teacher could make it.”

Poe watched as Principal Daniels ran off to greet some other teachers and then looked over the blankets, beaming excitedly when he saw Harry and Karé seated together, chatting with caramel apples in their hands. After Harry’s revealing text the other day, he figured he may as well leave them alone.

“Poe!” Harry called out. “Come join us!”

_…or not._

“Hey guys,” Poe said, giving Harry a sneaky look. “It’s a nice day for a picnic, huh?”

“You bet,” Harry said casually. Poe was already itching to give him a tip. He wasn’t even turned toward Karé, wasn’t even _looking_ at her. He was gazing absentmindedly over at the cider cart—perhaps he was thinking about fetching them both drinks.

“This fundraiser is _such_ a bore,” Karé said, leaning back on the blanket. “I wish Daniels didn’t make this stuff mandatory.”

“Nah,” Poe said. “The Box Hill fundraiser is always fun! We haven’t even gone on the hayride yet.”

“Whoop-de-fricking-doo,” Karé said, groaning and rolling over. Poe turned to Harry and gave him a sympathetic look, but he didn’t seem bothered by Karé’s lack of interest at all. Perhaps after everything that happened with Jessika he’d become immune to such things.

“Or,” Poe said without thinking. “Maybe you two could go off and do something fun by yourselves.”

They both stared up at him as if he’d suggested they go bungee-jumping.

“Um,” Poe said. “Anyway.”

The awkward silence was broken by Principal Daniels, who was calling all the teachers over to join the first hayride.

“Come on everyone! Gather around!” he shouted in excitement, and the teachers in his immediate vicinity had no choice but to follow him. Poe, Harry, and Karé shrugged and walked over to wait next to the wagon. Principal Daniels was lovingly laying flannel blankets over the hay bales as the tractor driver waited in silence.

More teachers lined up next to them—Finn, Rose, Snap, and Ms. Knightley.

Ms. Knightley stood in line behind Poe as they lined up to get in the wagon, and he reached out his hand to help her up.

Electric sparks shot through Poe’s arm as he relished the warmth of her hand encased in his, as he watched the flush spreading across her cheeks as their hands touched. He flexed the fingers of his hand outward as he sat down, as if somehow the contact had changed his flesh irrevocably, her touch lingering in a way that made him believe in the intoxicating possibility of the connection between them existing outside of his imagination.

Poe watched Ms. Knightley take the seat across from him as the teachers crowded into the wagon. Karé sat down beside him.

“Well isn’t this just marvelous,” Principal Daniels said. “Autumn truly is the most wonderful time, isn’t it Snap?”

Snap Wexley looked up at his uncle and nodded with tired eyes as the tractor engine whirred to life. “Sure,” he said, gazing off into the trees. He didn’t seem his usual self today, Poe thought.

“Yeah Snap,” Karé snarked. “Does Autumn remind you of Weymouth at all? Of any of the old teachers there? Any in particular, perhaps?”

“Not really,” Snap deadpanned, and turned back toward his uncle.

Poe leaned away from Karé. Why was she torturing Snap about this Ms. Dixon again? This went beyond teasing—anyone could see that she was deliberately making him uncomfortable. Was Ms. Knightley right? _Was_ there something more complicated going on here?

“How long does this hayride last?” Karé asked Principal Daniels with an almost accusatory tone.

“Oh, about forty-five minutes or so,” he replied, smiling at a small enclosure of goats behind him.

“And what are we supposed to do the whole time?”

“Take in the nature,” Finn said, and Principal Daniels nodded at him approvingly.

Karé sighed and picked a piece of hay off her jeans. “Let’s play a game instead.”

“Alright then,” Principal Daniels said. “Why don’t you and Poe come up with something.”

Karé turned toward Poe and smiled. “Any ideas?” she whispered.

Poe frowned and looked at the group. “Not really. I can’t tell what’s on anyone’s mind today—or what they would want to do, for that matter.”

Karé smirked. “Truth or dare?”

“With our boss?”

“Good point,” Karé said. “I’ll just start with asking.” She cleared her throat and raised her voice so everyone in the wagon could hear. “Alright everybody,” she said. “Poe and I would like to know what everyone is thinking about right now; at this very moment.”

The group stared at Karé with dull eyes, with the exception of Ms. Knightley, who was looking a little panicked and flushed for some reason.

“Nothing?” Karé asked. “Okay. We’ll get more specific then.” She turned to Poe with a mischievous grin. “Poe and I would like you to say either one extremely clever thing, two sort of clever things, or three very boring things. Surely you can all manage that?”

Principal Daniels laughed. “Shouldn’t be a problem. I certainly think I can come up with a few boring things to say, at least.”

Poe scoffed and laughed. “Yes, but remember you’re not allowed to say more than three boring things, Principal Daniels. I’m not sure if you can handle that.” He and Karé burst out laughing.

When Poe stopped to catch his breath, he was horrified to look up and see Principal Daniels slouched over in the corner, looking close to tears. “I’m sorry,” Principal Daniels muttered in a shaky voice. “I didn’t…I didn’t think I was boring anyone…”

Poe froze in a panic, only now realizing how much his words had hurt. He had been too amused by the cleverness of his own joke to stop and think about the potential emotional impact it might have on its target.

He felt like sinking into the ground, like letting the wheels of the tractor run him over.

The conversation carried on as Principal Daniels tried to compose himself in the corner. Only Ms. Knightley seemed to notice the change in him, and passed over a bag of roasted pecans to her boss as a sympathetic gesture.

“Oh, I’ve got one!” Finn said, and Rose giggled beside him. “If someone thinks Poe is hot, what do they say?”

“What!?” Karé giggled, still oblivious to her boss’s reaction.

“Poe _Damn-_ eron!”

The wagon burst into laughter at Finn’s joke as Poe nervously twisted at a piece of hay, deeply ashamed and terrified to meet anyone’s gaze.

They were all still stuck on the hayride for another twenty minutes.

And now Ms. Knightley was staring coldly at him, her blush gone, nothing but empty hatred left in her eyes.

***

Finally, _finally,_ the tractor pulled into the parking lot after twenty long minutes of painful silence, and it was time to go home.

Poe tried to get Principal Daniels alone to apologize to him, but he had rushed off to his car before he could get a word in.

 _Shit_.

Poe made his way down a gravel path to where he had parked, kicking at the rocks.

“Hey. Wait up.”

Poe felt his heart sink as he turned around to see Ms. Knightley walking towards him. She shook her head and glared at him.

“What the hell is wrong with you!?” she scolded under her breath, and Poe shrunk back in shame.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That joke was inappropriate, and kind of mean, and I should have—”

“No,” Ms. Knightley said, standing directly in front of him. “You don’t understand, do you? Do you have any idea how much Principal Daniels respects you? How cool he thinks you are? He’s always wanted approval and friendship from you, and it’s not your responsibility to give it to him, but the _least_ you can do is not _humiliate_ him in front of all of his employees. How could you be so cruel?”

“I’m sorry, Rey, I—”

“No. Don’t apologize to me. You need to apologize to him.”

Poe stared down at the ground, feeling completely broken. He couldn’t recall a time when he’d hated himself more.

“You know what,” she said, and she gave him a look that completely shattered him—not anger, not rage, but pure, empty disappointment. “I thought you had grown past this kind of thing. I thought maybe you’d learned to stop being so…being so…”

“Being so what?”

“Careless,” Rey said, and the word hit him like a bomb. “You have to stop treating everyone like your sidekicks, like they’re side characters in your own story to play with as you choose. We all have our own stories, too, Poe.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I really thought maybe you were starting to see that, there were moments when I thought…” she stopped to pull out a tissue from her bag. “I’m gonna go now.”

She turned around to walk back to her own car, and Poe considered calling out for her, but he couldn’t. Even if she did turn around, what would he say? He couldn’t prove her wrong. She was completely right.

It was just as he had expected. He would never be able to figure out how to be the kind of man that she deserved, would he?


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.”  
> ― Jane Austen, Persuasion.

It wasn’t the best weather for making a change.

A storm had rolled through the night before, taking all the bright autumn leaves off the trees and plastering them to the ground. The cold had set in along with the rain, forcing Poe to get his sweaters out of storage a few weeks early. He pulled on a nice green cable-knit one and made his way out to the car, a box of chocolates under his arm.

It was time to seek forgiveness.

He had spent the rest of the weekend after the Box Hill picnic cursing himself for his stupidity. No, stupidity was too light a word—stupidity was temporary, a mistake—what he was dealing with seemed to be ingrained far deeper.

 _Careless._ That was the word Ms. Knightley had used. She had looked so disappointed in him, so let down, and the look in her eyes had haunted him for days. _You have to stop treating everyone like your sidekicks, like they’re side characters in your own story to play with as you choose…_

It wasn’t enough for him to try and be better just when she was around, to be better just when it was convenient. He had to put in the effort. Not just for Rey, but for himself. He needed to learn to see things through other people’s eyes; to understand how he fit into _their_ lives as opposed to just how they fit into his.

And he would start with Principal Daniels.

Poe walked into school with his shoulders down, walking through a crowd of kids who looked almost as tired as he did.

He sighed. He really didn’t want to do this.

He had to do this.

Poe walked down the hall until he found Principal Daniel’s office, stalling in front of the door to take a deep breath before he went in.

“Mr. Dameron!” he said with a smile. It broke Poe’s heart to see how happy his boss looked to see him, even after Saturday’s incident. How had he been so callous? He had the nicest boss anyone could ask for, and he’d practically bullied him in front of his employees.

“Hey Principal Daniels,” Poe said. He held out the box of chocolates. “These are for you.”

“What? Whatever for?”

Poe composed himself and looked forward. “I was unfair to you on Saturday. What I said was mean-spirited and unprofessional, and it’s important to me that you know how sorry I am about it. You’re not only an amazing boss, but an amazing friend to me, and—I really feel awful. I don’t have…the natural ability to kind and genuine the way that you do.”

Principal Daniels gently lifted the lid off the box of chocolates and smiled, arranging them in neat rows. “Thank you, Poe,” he said. “I appreciate you coming in to apologize. And you’re right, I do have the tendency to drone on sometimes—and of course I forgive you. You’re a good young man, Mr. Dameron. In the end, you always do what’s right.”

“I’d like to make it that way, one day,” Poe said. The silence in the room was suddenly overwhelming. “How was the rest of your weekend?”

“Very strange,” Principal Daniels said. “You remember Jared Jared Binks, Jessika’s fiancé? How he was talking to my nephew Snap about taking a job in California?”

“Yeah…”

“He took it.”

“What?” Poe said. “But he’s been so happy here!”

“I know,” Principal Daniels replied. “But he was in an absolute state all weekend—wouldn’t answer any of my calls and skipped our weekly chess and wine tasting night. I’m very concerned, you know.”

Poe stepped back, his mind immediately flashing back to Karé and her taunts on Saturday. She had really upset him—but enough for him to move across the country?“I don’t understand,” he said.

“Me either,” said Principal Daniels. “I certainly will miss him when he goes.”

“So will I,” Poe said, and he meant it. “Anyway, thank you for listening to my apology, Principal Daniels. I hope you have a great rest of the day.”

“You too, Mr. Dameron,” he said, smiling as Poe walked out the door. He took a sigh of relief as he stepped out into the main office. The scariest part of the day was done. Now he could just—

“Poe.”

He turned to see Ms. Knightley leaning against the wall, watching him. She looked like she hadn’t gotten much sleep this weekend either. “You were talking to Principal Daniels?” she asked.

“Yes,” Poe said, scratching his head nervously. He was still almost too ashamed to meet her eyes. “I went to go apologize. Daniels was amazing about it, of course.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Poe said. “I’ve…I’ve felt like complete shit about what I did all weekend. I kept thinking about what you said, about what a great guy he is and how deeply I hurt him with that stupid freaking joke and—”

“But you apologized,” Ms. Knightley said. “That’s good, Poe. That’s…kind.” She smiled up at him and placed a gentle hand on his arm. “I’m proud of you for taking responsibility.”

Poe sighed, his eyes still on the ground. “I’m…I’m trying to be better, Rey. I really am. But I don’t know if I’ll ever be…I don’t know if I’ll ever truly be a good person. I just—I don’t think it comes naturally to me.”

“Listen to me,” Rey said, staring up at him. “Goodness isn’t a permanent state. It’s not a thing you are, or aren’t—it’s something you choose to do every day.” She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, and he could see her blushing as she pulled away. “And as long as you deicide to make that choice from now on, you have nothing to worry about.”

“You really think so?” Poe asked.

“I know so,” Rey said, and he saw a glimmer in her eyes that looked something like hope.

**Two Weeks Later**

“That’s an excellent point, Leia,” Poe said, walking up to the blackboard. “Does anyone else want to add to that?”

Obi-Wan Kenobi raised his hand. “I liked that the ending was changed from the play. The original ending of _The Taming of the Shrew_ wouldn’t sit well with modern audiences. _10 Things I Hate About You_ lets Kat keep her independence. Shakespeare’s ending was pretty sexist.”

Kylo grunted from the back of the room. “I liked the original ending better.”

Leia turned around and glared at him. “I liked your mouth better when you kept it shut.”

Poe pretended he didn’t hear.

“Anyway,” Poe said. “I hope you’ve enjoyed comparing and contrasting the play and its modern adaptation. It’s interesting to think about the challenges that would have gone into adapting a play from the 1590s into a 1990s high school setting.”

“It’s sort of like _Clueless,_ right?” Padmé asked.

Poe turned to her. “I’ve never seen it.”

“It’s based off of _Emma_ ,” Padmé said. “It’s the same sort of deal.”

“I haven’t actually read _Emma_ either.”

Padmé grimaced. “Aren’t you like…an English teacher?”

“I’m more of a _Pride & Prejudice _sort of guy,” he explained as the bell rang. “Alright! Looks like we’re out of time for today, but remember to read and annotate the article for Wednesday!”

Just as the last student walked out the door, Finn came barreling into the classroom, looking like he’d just sprinted across the building. “Dude,” he said, grabbing Poe’s shoulders and grinning. “ _Dude.”_

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“You are not going to _believe_ this.”

“Okay,” Poe said. “What?”

“Snap and Karé are _engaged._ ”

Poe stumbled back. “What? I mean…were they even…were they even dating?”

“That’s the crazy part,” Finn said, taking a seat on top of one of the desks. “They got engaged while they were teaching together at Weymouth High.”

 _Woah,_ Poe thought. _Rey was right. There had been something going on._ “And why didn’t we know about this?”

“There was a bunch of drama with Karé’s mom,” Finn explained. “She detested Snap, lord knows why. Karé wasn’t defending Snap to her mom and of course Snap was upset about it—there was a huge fight and they broke off their engagement this summer. There was still a lot of resentment when they both started teaching here.”

“Huh,” Poe said. “I guess that explains why they were always so weird around each other.” He thought about how mean Karé had been to him at the picnic, and how Snap was now supposedly moving to California. It must have already been a nightmare to work with his ex—and that must have been the final straw.

“Wait—” Poe asked. “So now they’re _back together?”_

“Yup,” Finn said. “They had some deep conversation and apparently everything is forgiven. They’re engaged again and Snap is going to continue teaching here.”

Poe crossed his arms. “Can I offer an opinion?”

“Go ahead.”

“Karé is kind of the absolute worst.”

Finn shrugged. “I’m not gonna disagree with you on that. Snap’s a nice guy and…well, he probably deserves better.”

“He definitely does,” Poe said. “I was wrong to judge him so much when he started teaching here. I was…jealous, I guess.”

“Well, they’re in love and engaged and there’s not much we can do about it,” Finn said.

“Yup,” Poe said, making his way out the door. “Love is weird, dude.”

“And which famous author said that?”

“Me when we got high after grading midterms last year, that’s who.”

Finn laughed. “If you say so.”

Poe walked down the hall, still processing the news about Snap and Karé. He supposed that her flirtations with him had just been to spite Snap. All of Karé’s past behavior was starting to make more sense.

Wait. Karé. She was engaged.

_Shit._

Poe ran down the stairs to the history department, finding Harry Beaumont’s classroom at the end of the hallway. It’d be better if he heard the news from him before someone else. It was so unfair. First he’d been rejected by Jessika, and now this? How much more could the poor guy take?

“Harry,” Poe said, finding him at his desk with his nose in a book. “Did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

“Um,” Poe said, twisting his hands together. “It’s not good news.”

“What?”

“Karé and Snap are engaged,” Poe said, and then preceded to repeat the whole story.

Harry stared up at him with a bemused expression. “That’s crazy,” he said. “I would have never guessed they had a thing!”

Poe sat down across from him with a blank expression. “So you’re…not upset?”

“No,” Harry said. “Why would I be upset?”

“Karé…?”

“I’m still lost.”

“The other day,” Poe explained. “You told me that you liked her. You said that after she came to your rescue you started thinking about her differently.”

“ _Oh!_ ” Harry laughed. “You thought I was talking about my flat tire!”

Poe was completely confused. “What else would you have been talking about, Harry?”

“The dance, of course,” he said, blushing a little.

“Harry—” Poe said, his eyes widening as the pieces started to fall together. “Who the hell are you talking about?”

“Rey,” Harry said. “I was talking about Rey.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."  
> -Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

Poe paced frantically down the empty hallway, replaying his conversation with Harry. Of all people for him to set his sights on, he had to choose _Ms. Knightley?_

He supposed he was being punished—and god knew he deserved it.

But what could he do? After all he’d put Harry through, he could never try and pursue Rey on his own, unless of course she returned his affections—which she clearly didn’t.

“ _Fuck,”_ Poe whispered, leaning his head against the cement wall. He’d have to watch it all unfold, of course—Harry and Rey, smiling at each other in the teacher’s lounge and holding hands. They’d be sickeningly adorable. Maybe he should transfer schools.

“Are you okay?”

Poe turned around to see Ms. Knightley standing beside him. She always managed to find him at the worst possible time. “I’m fine.”

She looked beautiful standing there in her pink dress. Beautiful and kind and funny and absolutely his favorite person—she had always been his favorite person. But he had discovered it too late.

“You don’t look fine,” she said. “But I can show you something that might cheer you up.”

Poe followed her down the hall until they stood outside an old supply closet. “Look in there,” she whispered, smirking and pointing to the window.

“Why?”

“Just look.”

Poe peered through the grimy window to see Karé and Snap pressed up against the wall, making out like teenagers. His eyes widened and he backed away. “So it really is true.”

“Yep,” Rey said. “Still doesn’t make it any less weird.” She sighed as they began to walk further down the hallway. “You know in one way, I suppose I am a bit jealous of her.”

“Of Karé?”

“Yeah,” she said. “She found her person. Her love is requited. It’s not all…tangled up the way it so often is for the rest of us.

Poe rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it.”

They walked on in silence, and Rey looked over at him, a hint of shyness in her eyes. “Did I tell you that Harry asked me out?”

“What?” Poe said. “Already?”

“So you knew, then.”

“Well, um,” Poe stuttered. He supposed he hadn’t given Harry the time to tell him much else besides the fact that he was interested in Ms. Knightley. He’d sprinted out of the room as soon as he could make an excuse.

“He asked me yesterday,” Rey said, looking absentmindedly out the window at the parking lot. “I said no.”

“Oh,” Poe said, suddenly filled with a sense of relief. Not hope, though. There was still very little of that.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I turned him down?” Rey asked. “Although…” she frowned and fiddled with the chain of her necklace, twisting the tiny metal daisy between her fingers. “You might not like my answer.”

“Then you don’t have to tell me,” Poe said. “I mean, no matter what, I’m your friend, and—”

“ _Friend_ ,” Rey muttered, the single word echoing down the empty hallway.

“What?”

“Poe, just tell me,” Rey said, staring up at him pleadingly. “Do I ever have a chance of being anything more than that to you?”

Poe looked back at her in awe, not quite able to process the pieces that were slowly falling into place. “Rey…”

“I know I’m an English teacher,” she gasped out, stumbling over her words in a panic. “Last week I taught my kids how to write a good speech, and yet here I am, completely without words, because every time I look at you, Poe, I swear I just turn into a complete idiot.” She covered her face with her hands, her face flushing scarlet. “This is so embarrassing, and so _useless,_ because there’s no way you could ever love me like I want you to, not after all my years of lecturing and scolding and—”

_“Rey…”_

“I’ve been so cruel and awful and—”

Poe placed his hand on her cheek. “Rey, stop…listen.” She took a deep breath and looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. “I’d be nothing without you. I’ve always needed you to tell me when I’m not being my best—and I’ve always loved you for that. I love you for—”

“No, no,” she refused. “Don’t you dare throw a word like that around if you don’t mean it, not after I’ve humiliated myself like this, not—”

“I know what I said, Rey.”

She froze.

“Like you said, we’re English teachers,” Poe added. “I’m the last person to throw that word around without knowing what it means. I…I love you, Rey Knightley. Please believe me.”

She gazed up at him in awe as he pulled her close, close enough that he swore he could hear her heart racing in the silence of the empty hallway. “I’ve loved you for a long time now—longer than I ever realized. But that night at the dance, holding you in my arms…it just _clicked,_ and I knew. I just knew you were _it_ for me. But I never thought it could happen, I never thought I’d be serious enough or good enough for you, I—”

“Oh, Poe,” Rey laughed, calming down and shaking her head at him. She brought her forehead to rest against his, her smile brighter than ever as she caught her breath. “As if I haven’t spent all these years dreaming that you’d rush over from your classroom next door and kiss the living daylights out of me.”

“Do you mean it, Rey? Really?”

She took his hand and beamed up at him. “Yes…and I’ve noticed that you’ve finally taken to calling me by my first name. That only took…what, three years?”

“So I have,” Poe said, kissing her hand tenderly. “But you’ll always be Ms. Knightley to me. The gorgeous, brilliant, and forever unattainable Ms. Knightley.”

“I’m not so unattainable anymore.”

“Really?”

“Nope. And what are you gonna do about it?” Rey smirked, and Poe brought his hand up to tilt her chin closer.

“Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

Rey grinned up at him. “It’s rude to keep a girl waiting, Mr. Dameron.”

He brushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “Well, if you insist, Ms. Knightley.”

Poe pressed his lips down to hers, unable to resist a grin as Rey opened up to him; deepening their kiss, savoring every brush of his lips against hers. He groaned as Rey ran a hand down his chest, pulling at his tie as they pressed closer together, wanting more. It was a kiss made all the better from the long wait, both of them ecstatic to finally get their hands on each other. Ms. Knightley was here in his arms, soft and warm and lovely, and the best part was that it was only the beginning.

“ _Hello_ ,” came a familiar voice from behind them, and they both jumped apart. “What have we here?”

Poe sighed, trying to control his frustration—this really wasn’t a moment he wanted to share with any of his students. “Do you need something, Lando?

“Nope,” he said, smirking at Ms. Knightley. “Woooow Mr. Dameron…you’ve got game. She’s gorgeous.”

Poe grimaced. “Mr. Calrissian, you’ll soon find that most women don’t appreciate being talked about like that while they’re within hearing distance. Not to mention how completely inappropriate a comment like that is in regard to a staff—”

“Inappropriate?” Lando scoffed. “You were the ones with your tongues down each other’s throats in the middle of the damn hallway!”

Poe snapped. “Do you want detention, Mr. Calrissian?”

He rolled his eyes and walked away, but not before giving Poe an outrageous wink.

When Poe turned back towards Rey to apologize, she was buckled over in laughter.

“Sorry,” he said. “He’s…he doesn’t really have a filter.”

“It’s okay,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder—the simple warmth of her there was already making him giddy. “So what are the odds that he’s going to tell everyone he knows?”

Poe groaned. “High. Very high.”

“I don’t mind,” Rey said. “I’m very ready for this. I guess technically it’s a little early to go public, but people were going to find out even—”

“ _Fuck,”_ he said, slumping back against the wall and sinking to the ground. “Harry.”

“But—”

“I can’t do this to him,” Poe explained. “It’s bad enough that Jessika hit on me when I was trying to set Harry up with her, but I encouraged him to pursue you when I thought he was talking about someone else, and now if we start dating—oh man, it’s going to make me look like such a complete and utter dick.”

Rey sat down next to him. “It’s not your fault that I like you and not him. I’ve already told him I’m not interested—I think he’ll understand. And he’s only liked me for what—a few weeks?”

“But it still feels wrong,” Poe said. “I’d say we keep it quiet for a while until Harry’s moved on a bit, but now with Lando about to tell everyone…god, can you imagine how awful he’s gonna feel? You reject him yesterday and then start dating me the next day!?” He sank his head into his knees. “I couldn’t have fucked up one person’s life more if I was trying deliberately.”

“I have an idea.”

“What?”

“Well,” Rey said. “I’m friends with Kaydel Connix—and you remember how much she and Harry liked each other at the beginning of the year, and how she asked him out for drinks. They had amazing chemistry, amazing potential, until—”

“—until I told Harry to ditch her for Jessika,” Poe finished, still filled with shame.

“Exactly,” she said. “Kaydel still seems to harbor quite a bit of a crush on Harry Beaumont, as far as I can tell. She was the first person he was drawn to here, and he was right from the very beginning. I say we refresh his memory a little bit.”

Poe turned to her, a mockingly incredulous look on his face. “I’m sorry, are you _telling_ me to meddle?”

“One last hurrah,” she said, winking at him. “What do you say?”

“Well,” Poe said. “I suppose the world deserves a farewell tour for my matchmaking talents.”

She shrugged. “You’ve got to give the people what they want.”

“Rey?”

“Yes?”

Poe looked at her then, at the sparkling wit behind her hazel eyes, the pink blush her cheeks always had in his presence…he suddenly felt so overwhelmed with love for her that he thought he could die of it.

“You’re the best person I know, Rey,” he said, leaning closer to her. “You’re so _kind._ Not the kindness that’s easy to give, not gift baskets and empty words—you make people better. You help them be strong and selfless and good; good the way you are. You’ve made me better.”

She smirked. “I know.”

He elbowed her playfully and laughed as she fell into his arms.

“If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more,” Rey admitted, staring up at the ceiling. “But to be honest, you’re way too good-looking for me to remember how to speak properly when you’re around. It’s becoming a bit of a distraction.”

“Well we can’t have that. You’ll have to close your eyes, then.”

She did. “Okay.”

Rey smiled as she felt his lips caress hers again, her heart already eager at the prospect of more…oh, this man—this insufferable, ridiculous, beautiful man.

He had always been so full of kindness. He had always been good, so good it made her heart hurt to think of it. She had always known.

And he was finally hers.


	12. Epilogue

**One Year Later**

“We’re going to have to decide which ones we really want,” Rey said. They were sitting on the floor of By-The-Cover Books, a pile of about fifty used books piled between them. “This is going to equal a whole new stack for each of us.”

“So?” Poe asked. “Minimalism is overrated.”

“And—” she added. “Technically we’re just preparing for our jobs. We’re being professional—it’s for the kids. And they’re fifty cents a piece.”

“I like the way you think,” Poe said, smiling contentedly as Rey rested her head on his shoulder.

“So,” she said, grabbing his arm and snuggling deeper into him. “What’s this big surprise you’ve got planned for me?”

“Well,” Poe said, smiling and leaning in to kiss her. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you now, would it?”

“I suppose not,” Rey sighed, rolling her eyes at him. “So, are we narrowing down these stacks?”

“I mean…do we really _have_ to?”

She grinned. “I knew I fell in love with you for a reason.”

They walked out to Poe’s car and piled all four tote bags of books into the trunk. It was an unseasonably warm day for October, with a full moon and clear sky spread out with stars. Perfect weather for what Poe had planned.

He smiled at Rey in the passenger seat, looking cozy and content in her jeans and red sweater. She’d moved in with him and Kes six months ago, and he’d never been happier. Rey knew that he could never bear to leave Kes alone, and was more than happy to share their living space—Rey and his dad were already thick as thieves, playing scrabble for hours and pulling absurd pranks on him. Poe woke up each morning with Rey cuddled against him, smiling in her sleep. Then he’d make them both coffee and they’d drive off the Jakku High together. Their classrooms were still right next to each other, and Poe took every opportunity between classes to visit her, even if they only had a few minutes—just enough time for a talk and a kiss behind Rey’s bookshelf.

God, he adored her.

Rey scrolled through her phone. “I got an email from Connix,” she said. “She wants us to go rock-climbing with her and Harry again next weekend.”

“Again?” Poe asked. “I’m still sore from last time. Can’t we have one date night that doesn’t completely destroy every joint in my body?”

Rey giggled. “You shouldn’t have set them back up if you didn’t want to rock-climb so much.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe said. He supposed he was lucky in how well that situation had turned out. Harry had taken the news that he and Rey were together rather well, and was more than happy to return to his original pursuit of Kaydel Connix—the two really were made for each other, and were now practically inseparable. Monthly date nights with him and Rey, Harry and Connix, and Finn and Rose were a regular thing these days.

“A proposition,” Poe said. “Why don’t we invite Snap next time?”

“Even though he’s not part of a couple anymore?” Rey asked. “Won’t he feel like he’s…I don’t know, third-wheeling?”

“I don’t think so,” Poe said. “He’s a chill guy.” Snap had broken it off with Karé a couple of months after they had reinstated their engagement, much to Poe’s relief. He’d always thought that Snap deserved better than her, especially after how horribly she’d treated him. Karé had resigned at the end of that semester, and they hadn’t seen her since.

“Hm…” Rey said, a mischievous grin on her face. “Perhaps we should find a nice lady to keep him company?”

“ _No_ ,” Poe said, laughing and giving her a knowing look. “I think Snap can figure that out on his own.”

They drove on until Poe turned down an unfamiliar back road, and Rey raised her eyebrows. “Where exactly are you taking me?” she questioned. “I feel like I’m about to get murdered—and I didn’t even have time to look at the books I bought!”

He laughed. “Just trust me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Poe turned the car down another dusty road and parked on the side of it, helping Rey out of the car. They were parked at the edge of a massive field surrounded by trees, the last of the summer’s wildflowers casting shadows in the bright moonlight.

At the far end of the field was a huge projection screen.

Rey let out a gasp of delight and turned to Poe. “Did you do this?”

He grinned and took her hand. “Maybe…although I might have had some help.”

Rey jumped up in excitement when she saw Finn and Rose spreading a blanket, pillows, and a picnic basket on the ground.

“Don’t mind us!” Finn shouted, grabbing Rose’s hand and running away. “We’re just helpers!”

“They’re not staying?” Rey asked.

“Nope,” Poe said, wrapping his arm around her and kissing her cheek. “This is just for us.”

He walked over to the projector and set up the film as Rey excitedly unloaded the contents of the picnic basket—champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a charcuterie platter that was definitely Finn’s handiwork.

“Dig in,” Poe said, sitting down next to her on the blanket as the film sputtered to life. They popped open the champagne bottle and poured their glasses, cuddling close to each other as the overture burst from the speakers.

“What movie did you choose?” Rey asked.

“You’ll see,” Poe winked.

She wrapped her arms around him in delight as the title appeared on the projector.

He’d picked out _Roman Holiday,_ of course _—_ what else?

Rey fell into his arms as the credits rolled across the screen. She looked up at him, her eyes bright. “I love you,” she said. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“Well,” he shrugged. “There’s a possibility I did it just so we could get one of Finn’s charcuterie platters, _but—_ ”

She giggled as they laid back on the blanket, drinking champagne and eating strawberries as they watched Audrey Hepburn sashay across the screen in her princess gown. The moonlight shining down made the film look even more magical, made the characters look ethereal as they wandered around the streets of Rome.

“She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

Rey turned to face him. “What?”

“Audrey,” he said. “Compared to you that night at the dance.”

“Uh huh,” Rey laughed. “Sure.”

“I mean it,” Poe said. “Audrey looks too naive. But you—you’re clever and bright and witty, and sort of look like you could beat me up if you set your mind to it. That,” Poe said, booping her nose. “ _That’s_ hot.”

Rey laughed and snuggled closer to him. They were laying side by side in the dark, too wrapped up in their affection for one another to pay attention to what was happening on screen.

“The stars are so much brighter out here,” Rey said, looking up. “Bright enough that you can really imagine they contain other worlds…”

“Yeah,” Poe agreed, staring up at the sky as Rey rested her head on his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, still dreaming. “I wish I could be up there with them. And you, of course.”

“On a magic carpet?” she asked.

“I’m thinking spaceship.”

“A pegasus?”

Poe laughed and kissed the top of her head. “Hey, sunshine?”

“Hm?”

They’d reached a point in the movie where a waltz was playing, tinny and slow. “Dance with me.”

He took her hand and helped her up, settling his hands on her waist as they walked to the middle of the field. Rey put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in close, letting him lead her as the orchestra echoed out across the night.

“I still don’t think I’m a very good dancer,” Rey admitted.

“And I,” Poe said, spinning her around and sealing the move with a kiss. “Still think you’re wrong.”

Rey giggled and rested her head on his chest, overwhelmed with happiness as the moon bathed them in soft light. That first dance felt like ages ago now—how different that dance had been; how delicate that line they’d once walked…they loved each other so loudly now, so fully, that it felt like a different era altogether.

But it wasn’t all that different, Poe thought. He hadn’t lost a bit of the thrill he felt touching her, the excitement and warmth that emanated through him every time she had something new to say.

Poe remembered when he’d started wearing his mother’s ring around his neck as a teenager. If he was lucky enough, Kes had once said, he’d meet someone he’d love and adore enough to give it to. The ring had always felt like an object out of time—he used to lie awake at night and hold it in his hands, willing and wishing it to give him some glimpse into the future: _Who are you going to belong to? Where are they? Can you show me?_

There was no need for those questions anymore.

Poe stepped back as the music faded away, taking Rey’s hand in his and kissing it. “Ms. Knightley,” he whispered reverently.

She gave him a cheeky smile. “You haven’t called me that in a while.”

“Well, it’s a formal occasion…” Poe said, swiping his thumb across her knuckles. “And I’d like to ask you something.”

“Oh?” Rey said, and Poe couldn’t help but break into a grin at how her expression changed as she watched him go down on one knee.

“Rey Knightley,” Poe said, gazing up at her with tears in his eyes. “You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met—you’re my hero. You’re my best friend. I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life…” He tried not to cry as he took a pause to remove the ring from the chain around his neck, holding it out to her. “I want my dad to always have a worthy scrabble partner, and I want us to have a big house with stacks and stacks of books and a dog. I mean, if you want a dog—Oh! And we can—”

“ _Poe,”_ she whispered, kneeling down to meet him.

He beamed at her, catching his breath as he took her face into his hands. “Will you marry me?”

Rey giggled, pressing her forehead to his. “Yes,” she gasped. “Yes! Of course I will!”

They both burst into happy tears, clutching each other and kissing over and over as they fell onto the blanket.

“I love you,” Rey said, falling into his arms. “I love you so much.”

“I know,” Poe teased, nuzzling the top of her head. “And I love you too.”

They stayed out on that field for longer than they knew, planning and dreaming about the days ahead as the moonlight lit up the trees. It was a night neither of them would ever forget, and one that passed far too quickly, both of them lost in each other’s eyes, marveling at their good fortune until dawn broke over their heads.

They packed up the blanket and projector and what was left of the food, walking back to the car as the morning revealed itself in soft pinks and mist over the grass.

Poe watched Rey walking in front of him, her eyes smiling as she turned back to look at him, stretching out her hand.

He took it gladly, and walked with her into a new day.

Of all the beginnings of all the stories, Poe decided, kissing Rey deeply as the sun rose over the trees…this one was the best one of all.

**THE END.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “The wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.”  
> -Jane Austen, Emma.


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